The Abyssal
by Reaper81609
Summary: Artorias, Knight of Gwyn, Lord of Cinder. During his fight within the Abyss he was consumed by black magic, but these sorceries have their ways of being unpredictable, who knows what can happen to a soul once struck by its corruption.
1. Chapter 1

The Abyssal Ch. 1

**AN: Alright so I'll let you all know right now, I haven't played the PtD edition yet, I'm waiting for the dlc very impatiently. I've noticed there haven't been much crossovers for Dark Souls, call that a good thing if you will, and I've been a mood to write but couldn't find something, so here we are. This is just a test if anything if no one likes it, and I do ask for your guys help if you're willing to give it, then I'll take it down, I've been doing that a lot recently... It's been a while since I've seen Soul Eater, but I plan on brushing up on it over the next couple days and if I get someone's feelings or acting wrong, don't be afraid to call it out, some of the better stories are helped by the community.**

**I think Artorias is an awesome guy, and I'm fine with what they did in the new content, this is just a 'what-if' scenario, I guess most crossovers are but that's beside the point. Hope you guys enjoy it and let me finish by saying I own NOTHING, nothing in Soul Eater or Dark Souls. Now, without further a-dew…**

* * *

Artorias let out a deep breath as he fell back onto a stone pillar and slowly slid down it as he felt his strength fade still. This place, this wretched place known as the Abyss, it was not meant for those of light, those who were not human. The longer he spent here the weaker he felt, he had placed his shield with his companion, Sif, and hoped that the wolf would one day find his way out. He grasped his pendant tightly and felt strength fill his heart and limbs and stood slowly.

Whatever lay ahead he did not know if he could best it, but he must try, the fate of this place and the realm depended on it, he must not fail. Artorias fought on through the strange creatures ahead, what was left of the residents of Oolacile and the strange black sprites that were repelled by his pendant. He fell to his knees at last in front of a white gate of fog as he regained what strength he had left and stood, what lied ahead he did not know, but he was not simply going to give up now.

He took a shaky step forward and pushed through the gate, he stood on a ledge to a black chasm and looked down, he gripped his pendant with his left hand as his other tightened on the hilt of his sword. Suddenly a large hand burst from the darkness and as he rolled back, but the hand gripped his leg and pulled him into the darkness.

Artorias was slammed into the ground and rolled, lying where he stopped for a minute before his hand searched and found his sword. He used it as a prop as he pulled himself up; the strength of the Abyss was its strongest here, he could feel it in his bones, and as he looked up, he saw his target.

The beast was large, massive, but he stood strong, he had killed dragons bigger; he would not let his courage falter, could not. His grip tightened on his sword and he brought his other hand up to grab the hilt as he held it out in front of him and began to circle the creature. It roared at him and charged, Artorias dove to the side as it slammed the ground where he was a moment before. He jumped forward and slammed his sword into the creatures arm, it sunk deep, but the creature hardly paid mind to it and smacked him away.

Artorias hit a pillar, flying through it and rolling, he got up as quick as he could and dove back as the creature did an uppercut with its giant arm. He ran around behind it and sliced at its leg, it buckled and Artorias got another hit in on its waist before diving back as the creatures arm reached around behind it to try and grab him.

He ran back a bit as the thing roared and went into a rampage, thrashing the area around it; he was about to move in when it batted at him with its staff. He blocked it with his sword and spun back with the force of the blow, ending the small turn facing the creature again. Its staff glowed black like the sprites from before, he clutched his pendant and as the waves of black magic came at him he heaved his chest out and light surrounded him, the darkness flowing around him.

The creature was on him in an instant however and he barely got his sword up in time as it brought its cruel staff down on him. He groaned in pain as his legs and arms screamed fighting the massive force. Artorias was helpless as the creature brought its hand up and grabbed him, throwing him across the fighting ground. He got up in a run and stumbled forward as the creature again slammed its staff into the ground where he was moments before, it felt impossible to get up, his strength was nearly depleted.

He held up his sword however, he may lose this fight, but he would not give up. He ran forward and dove under the creatures massive arm as it swung, but grabbed its fur on its arm as it passed over his head. He flew through the air and let go when he was above the creature, falling onto its back he plunged his sword down into the creature.

It roared in pain and tried to grab him but he pulled his sword out and stomped the creatures head with his metal boot, causing it to falter, before bringing his arms over his head to bring his sword down on its skull. However, the creature managed to grasp him, and Artorias felt himself leave the creatures back as his arms were held above his head where its wicked fingers grasped him. It slammed him into the ground and flung him into the air, smacking him away before he could hit the ground again.

He hit the ground hard and bounced as he rolled to a stop in front of a pillar, he grasped it desperately and looked up as he saw the creatures black magic surrounding it. Artorias used the last of his strength to crawl around the pillar and rest his back against it as he heard the blackness assault the stone, it crumbled from the cursed magic, nothing but a stone stump when the assault stopped.

He stood shakily, he would not give up, he would not. He held his sword in his hand but fell forward onto his knees, he would _not_ give up. Artorias looked up as the malevolent being swung its staff, a wall of black rushed at him and he slammed his swords blade into the ground in front of him and what magic it had left deflected the black around him, but it closed in slowly. It was all too soon when it was flung away, his fingers barely holding onto it as it was thrown back with the force of the magic.

Artorias was hit full force in the chest, spiked right through by one of the abyssal sorceries. His grip loosened on his sword as he sat still on his knees, but he gripped it lightly with the last of his strength as he fell forward and lay still on his stomach as light drained from his vision. "Ciaran…" he whispered quietly as nothing but black remained.

* * *

He remained still for what felt like millennia before his eyes slowly opened beneath his hood. It was dark, not abyssal dark, but there was no light around to tell him of his surroundings other than that he was in an open room and that his sword was right before him. His arms felt like they did not belong to him, but they responded the way he wanted them to and his fingers tightened on the hilt of his sword. Artorias tried to get up, hoisting himself up on shaky arms he just fell forward, rough stone rubbing his hood against his cheek.

He propped himself up on his forearms and slowly pushed himself onto his back, his strength was returning to him slowly, but his limbs felt like they hadn't been used in ages. He took deep breaths and held his hands up in front of his face and opened and closed them to make sure he could do so, he felt in a trance as his arms felt detached. His arms dropped to his chest and he stared up into the black above him as he tried to regain his senses.

He could hear and feel a light breeze blow across his face after many minutes and turned his head to his right, nothing from what he could see but there may be something over there. Artorias again rolled himself over and pressed his blade into the ground and held it with both hands as he used it to pull himself up. He took a step forward, and another, and another, his sword dragging in the dirt behind him as he limped slowly in the direction of the wind.

He reached a wall and pressed a hand against it for support before leaning his shoulder into it and gripping his pendant, or tried to as he found it was no longer there. He cursed to himself, and to the creature he had been fighting, wherever it may have retreated to…or transported him to. Artorias looked up the wall he was leaning against and saw stairs, following them he saw where they reached the floor and limped over to them. When he reached them he looked up the large stair case and reached into a small pouch on his belt where he found another thing to draw strength from, a gift from Ciaran, it was a small talisman she had carved for him.

He did not know where he was, but this certainly wasn't where he had been fighting that infernal abyssal beast. After a while of climbing he saw a torch inside of a dark stone passage, grabbing it he lifted his sword up and rested it on his shoulder. There was no explanation for it, but he was no longer in the Abyss as he felt its leeching grip no longer held him, instead he felt his strength slowly returning.

Artorias explored the passage as it took him down many more before opening into lit chamber with large stone pillars and a large doorway opening to sunlight. He discarded the torch and limped slowly to the exit, covering his eyes as the light stung them. He reached back into his pouch and gripped the wooden talisman tightly as he stepped out into the sunlight, he fell to his knees and fell forward, his arms stopping him as the talisman dropped from his hand and his sword clanged to the ground.

While Artorias was still regaining his strength, he was still very weak, all the walking after just waking had drained him. He took deep breaths and looked down at the talisman from Ciaran and his heart felt as though it had been pounded with a blacksmiths hammer. He fell back a bit on his legs and reached down for the talisman, lifting it gently with both hands and holding it to his chest as he sat hunched in the entrance to the structure he was in front of.

He looked up after a while and examined his surroundings, he was in a chasm of sorts, there were high cliff walls on either side of him, but not close enough as to not allow trees to form a path in the dry dusty ground. The structure itself was old and overgrown with vines and ivy, the sandstone color barely poking through some of the lower greenery. Artorias looked at the trees on either side of the path ahead of him, how they grew he was not sure, but grass grew alongside them in the sandy ground.

This was not Oolacile, he wasn't sure this was even Lordran, but Lordran was a wicked place, anything was possible. Artorias looked around and ripped a small but thick vine down and stripped the leaves from it in one sweep on his hand down the small greenery. He wove it through a hole in the talisman carefully and reached into his hood with each hand grasping an end of the vine, he tied it behind his neck and let go.

Artorias gently grabbed the talisman and held it closed to his face as he bowed his head, making a silent prayer as he set it against his chest and rested his hands against his legs as he looked around one last time. He took a deep breath and stood carefully before reaching down and grasping his sword, swinging it up onto his shoulder he took a step down the small staircase and into the dusty sand. He could feel the heat of the sun above despite being in the shade and not being able to see it but he would not let that stop him as he walked.

He did not know what his next goal was, but for now, he would walk, what he found next, he knew, would decide what it was he did next. He didn't have to wait long.

* * *

"You sure this is the place?" Tsubaki asked Maka as Soul and Black Star stood beside them as they looked into a large dark canyon that was in the middle of the desert. They had been called by Lord Death earlier that day to be told that they had found a very strange soul wave that they couldn't identify, as it was weak and was like nothing they had scanned before.

"I think this is where Lord Death told us to go," Maka said looking at a map they had been given, "Of course us being in the middle of the desert doesn't leave much room for interpretation, but there aren't that many canyons around." She held a hand up to her head to block the hot sun and looked around at the sandy wasteland around them before looking back into the chasm. "So you wonder what's in there?" she asked.

Black Star laughed and held a thumb to his chest, "It doesn't matter, a man big as myself doesn't need to worry because I can handle everything," he said loudly. He frowned and crossed his arms, "Why Lord Death even had you guys go with me I don't even know, I can handle myself."

Soul chuckled to himself, "That why you guys haven't gotten a single Kishin egg yet?" he asked.

Black Star waved a dismissive hand, "I'll have you know Tsubaki could very well be a Death Scythe by now, but a man big as myself doesn't need someone else to do the work for him," he replied casually referring to their mission from the other day.

"Come on," Maka said slightly annoyed and walking forward, "We came here to find that soul for Lord Death, not bicker about who has how many souls," she said and the others followed her. After a minute they were consumed by shade from the tall chasm before it opened up to another grove.

"Whoa," Soul said looking at the path ahead of them, before them was a sandy path that had trees on both sides with some green on the sand around them going down the long pathway. It looked beautiful with the trees leaves creating patches of sunlight on the path and blowing clean air around them as the gentle sound of the leaves wavered in the breeze.

"Let's keep it moving," Black Star said rolling his eyes and walking ahead of the group as they gaped at their surroundings for a moment longer before following him. Beautiful as it was, the pathway was long and winding and after a while Maka felt the air grow strange as she felt something.

"You feel that?" Soul asked quietly after a while looking around them, he felt it too.

"It feels like a soul," Tsubaki said mimicking Soul's reaction.

"HAH!" Black Star laughed loudly, "You guys shouldn't worry so much, if there is something ahead a man like myself can protect us, you don't need to worry."

"Black Star this is serious," Maka snapped, there was something wrong, this soul was definitely different and she was fairly certain it was powerful, despite how weak it might be.

He waved a dismissive hand and placed his hands on the back of his head and continued to walk, Maka fumed inwardly but they continued on until they made a turn around another corner. Everyone stopped and stared at the large figure as he rested against one of the trees down the path, they could faintly make out what looked like a temple way further back.

He had silver armor and blue cloth on him, one hand held a massive sword as it lay flat on the ground beside him as the other held a charm of some sort in front of his chest, the string going into his helmeted hood, which obscured his face. His head was leaning back against the tree as far back as his dark plume would allow him, he didn't seem to notice them.

He looked pretty tall, like maybe a bit taller than Tsubaki, but it was hard to tell with him sitting down and with how far away they were. "Hey you!" Black Star shouted at him.

"Black Star," Tsubaki hissed quietly, worry in her usually gentle tone, but the figure did not move.

"Are you strong?" he shouted, "because I'm going to beat you in a bigger way you can ever imagine!" The figure lowered his hand to his chest and let go of the charm and leaned forward as he rose.

"Black Star," Tsubaki said with her tone now full of worry, the man was tall, _very _tall, if Maka were to guess he must have been almost as big, if not bigger, as Lord Death. They all tensed as the figure rose to his full height and raised his giant sword to his shoulder easily before looking at the group of kids.

All except for Black Star, "You better get ready, we're going to beat you to a pulp and get your Kishin soul!" he shouted.

Maka frowned as the figure stood still, "I don't think he's a Kishin," she said, there was always that certain essence around Kishin's that made you know what was one or not, but this guy, whatever he was or however powerful he may be, wasn't a Kishin.

The figure just stared at them for the longest time, Black Star grumbled, "Well are you gonna do anything or not?" he demanded.

Finally he took a step toward them and Soul prepared himself to transform, but the figure simply walked up to them, looking down on them from his height; sheesh the guy must have been, like, eight feet, maybe taller. After a moment he looked back up and walked right through the middle of their group, his armor clanking with each step he took through the sand.

"Don't turn your back on me!" Black Star shouted angrily as Maka debated whether they should follow him. When he didn't stop, "Tsubaki," he demanded and she bit her lip and looked at the figure before turning into a chain scythe and dropping into Black Star's hands.

He yelled as he charged the figure, "Black Star, wait!" Maka yelled reaching out to grab him, but it was too late, the idiot jumped at the man, or whatever he was.

He quickly looked over his shoulder and stepped to the side, catching Black Star's leg and swinging him around over his head as he spun his giant sword in his other hand. He slammed Black Star into the ground and his giant sword slammed down into the ground, kicking up a lot of dust.

Soul and Maka coughed and closed their eyes as they fanned the dust, looking after a moment to see Black Star on the ground and the figure crouching over him with is giant sword imbedded in the ground right beside Black Star's head.

"Soul!" Maka said holding her arm out.

"Right," he replied and grabbed her hand and transformed into a scythe, she stood tensed and ready as Black Star scoffed.

"Stupid, you can't even hit me, but that's okay, you wouldn't have been the first to try and harm me and fail," he said. The figure pulled the sword up a bit before slamming it back into the ground, causing Black Star to flinch. He stood and pulled the sword from the ground, reaching down and plucking Tsubaki from the ground also and tossing her away, she transformed again and landed looking at the tall man.

He looked at them, "Who are you?" Maka demanded, her grip tightening on Soul.

He was silent for a moment, "My name is Artorias, one of the four knights of Gwyn, Lord of Cinder. My title is Abysswalker, and at the moment I am not going to fight a group of children I can easily kill, even in my weakened state." His voice was calm and cool, despite talking of being in a weakened state he definitely was fast enough to pluck Black Star out of the air. There was something he said that caught Maka's attention, several things actually, one of the four knights of Gwyn, the supposed Lord of Cinder? There were three more like him and who was this Gwyn? Then there was the other thing, his title was Abysswalker, that was certainly interesting, maybe they could ask him a couple questions. "Though you must be very skilled in sorceries despite your age to be able to transform your flesh such as you do," he added causing more questions to fill her head.

Maka lowered Soul, "Maka?" he asked cautiously.

"Sh," she hissed, "Just trust me," she whispered and he nodded, but remained in weapon form. "Where do you think you are?" she asked nicely, they hadn't heard of anything he just talked about, maybe he was delusional.

"Lordran," he said calmly, "Surely even humans such as yourselves should know that."

They all looked at each other, except Black Star who didn't seem to even notice as he stood. Maka looked back at the tall man, "You're…just outside Death City, you're on earth, not…Lordran," his face was obscured by his hood, but it was obvious he must have been confused. "We were sent here by Lord Death to find a strange soul wave, we guess that's yours," she said.

The man looked down at himself as if to look at his soul and looked up at them, "Take me to this Lord Death of yours, if I am in a new land I'd prefer to not hear it from a group of children," he said.

"HEY!" Black Star shouted, "I'm not a child, I'm a bigger man than you can ever hope to be!" the man slowly turned his attention to the kid.

"Did you save your land and watch as friend and ally died beside you as their flesh and bones were burned to cinder by dragon flame? Did you ever step foot into the Abyss and live to tell the tale? Have you ever loved…" he stopped himself and looked down at his charm before looking up at the ignorant kid. "When you see what I have seen and still be sane, then you can say you're a bigger man than I," he said and looked down the path behind him. "You may follow if you wish, but lest Nito is not this Lord Death you speak of then I may need your guidance, if so I prefer we not speak otherwise," he said and began down the path.

"Can you believe this guy?" Black Star said, Maka rolled her eyes and Soul transformed again as they kept their distance from the figure ahead of them.

"You think this guy's coo-coo in the head?" Soul whispered to her spinning his finger next to his head.

She shrugged, "No clue, I'm fairly certain he's not a Kishin, but I don't know, he has a very strong soul I can say that for certain though. If anything he thinks we're the crazy ones so maybe he's just lost, I mean his soul just randomly appeared out of nowhere so we have no idea what happened to him before." She felt like asking him questions, who was this Gwyn he talked about and who were his other three knights? Why did he say unless Nito wasn't Lord Death he would need their help, who was Nito? What's up with the dragons and the Abyss and all that? And then there was that sentence when he was going off on Black Star, had he lost a loved one or something?

Then their was the charm, Maka could see his step waver a bit but his hand moved up to his chest about where his charm was and his steps seemed to right themselves, Maka had taken a look at it but it was just a piece of wood with some carvings on them. Maybe he was from somewhere else, the guy was skinny, but really tall, and he seemed to believe really heavily that he was in this Lordran place. After a while they stepped out into the desert and Artorias stood ahead of them a bit out in the middle of the sand looking up at the sky, not seeming to mind the heat.

They followed his gaze to the laughing sun, "What an idiot, who stares at the sun?" Black Star muttered angrily.

Tsubaki frowned and walked up to him, she tugged at his small blue cape, he looked down at her. "Are you okay sir?" she asked and he looked back up at the sun.

He was silent for a while, "Human, have you ever loved something?" he asked and she was confused a second.

"Yes," she said looking up at him.

"Have you ever had that thing taken away from you, separated by death or the simple knowledge you will never see them again?" he asked.

Tsubaki lowered her gaze, "Yes," she said quietly after a moment.

"Then you have an understanding of the emptiness," he said and she looked up at him surprised, "There has only been one thing I have ever loved, and now I will never see her again. I know not if she knows of my fate, my fight within the Abyss, my loss, but I know that while I know she may live on elsewhere she only knows me as missing and I do not wish her to be filled with such anxiety thinking of such things. We never announced our love to each other as our knighthood demanded it, but we knew of the looks we would give one another and I wish Ciaran better than anxious thoughts of my fate; knowing of my death will provide some closure, I have seen many knights lose their minds to thoughts of their loved ones. I know not if you understand what I am saying child, but when there has only ever been one light in a sea of darkness and war and death, when there has been love where before there was nothing, there is no feeling like it. To have that taken away is no different than to go Hollow, she is strong, but all have their limits," he finished.

Tsubaki stared up at him, his words were a bit confusing to her, he seemed like he wanted to say different than what he did or that he just couldn't put his feelings into words, but she knew what he meant. She smiled and walked around him and grabbed his free hand, he looked down at her and was still for a moment before nodding and she pointed in the direction of Death City.

"Death City is that way, we can show you the way if you need us to," she said and waved the other three over. He nodded and allowed them to walk ahead of him.

"What did he say?" Maka whispered after looking over her shoulder.

"I think he knows he's not where he thought he was," was all Tsubaki said, "If you want specifics you can ask him yourself, I think he should be the one to tell you." Though she had just met him, she wanted to respect the mans privacy, if he wanted more than just her to know, then he would tell, that was how secrets worked usually and she knew, she could relate. After a long while they stopped outside Death City as Artorias fell to his knees and used his hand and sword to support himself.

"Hey what happened?" Soul asked as the four of them went to see what was wrong with him.

"I told you before, I am weak from a hard battle and my strength is still recovering. I do not fall to my knees for any other reason than they have been wanting to for over an hour and have finally reached their limit," he breathed out. Black Star scoffed with crossed arms and Artorias looked at him, despite the sun it was as if the hood absorbed all light and his face remained further obscured. "Child, you insult my honor, another outburst such as that and do not think I will not challenge you," he said and Black Star looked at him with a wicked smile.

"Black Star!" Tsubaki warned harshly before he could say anything, he looked at her with a disappointed look on his face and shrugged, turning and walking away toward the academy.

Artorias sat back and set his sword down as he gripped the charm around his neck, what looked like a dried vine now being the only thing holding it. He held it up to his face for a moment before taking a deep breath and standing, he allowed them to guide him to the large school at the top of the city.

He stared at the building and the others looked back at him, save Black Star who was already climbing the steps. "Everything okay?" Maka asked him.

He lowered his gaze to them, "Yes, it is simply strange is all," he said glancing at the giant candles around the large building. "What is the purpose of having a castle such as this?" he asked as he had never seen such an odd sight.

"Oh, it's our school, this is where weapons and meisters go to learn how to use their powers and help get rid of Kishin's," Maka told him as they walked up the steps.

"Kishin's?" he asked slightly confused.

"They're weapons who have killed humans and consumed their souls, corrupting their own and turning them evil," Maka replied.

Artorias absentmindedly fumbled with another pouch on his belt and pulled a small box from it, his bottomless box. "What's that?" Soul asked as Artorias opened the lid and reached his fingers in as he slipped his sword into a small leather loop on his back that held it.

He felt something with his fingers but dug around for a moment more before pulling out a golden sprite that floated in the palm of his hand. "What's that?" Tsubaki asked, the group staring at it mesmerized.

"'Tis a dragon soul, have you never seen one before?" he asked, they shook their heads and he placed it back in his box and snapped it closed, putting it away and pulling his sword back onto his shoulder. "There are all sorts of sprites, each soul has a certain amount of power, to crush one within ones palm can fill you with their power temporarily; though if I were to guess, these souls you hunt are not the same things." They now looked tense as he described how souls worked where he came from. "If you must know, I defended my land with my life, no time soon do I plan on consuming a human soul if there is no need," he said and walked up the steps.

The three watched him and whispered among themselves, "I thought you said he wasn't a Kishin?" Soul asked.

"He's not, at least, not from what I can sense," Maka snapped, "He did say he was from somewhere else, maybe souls there work differently," she said with a shrug.

"I think we should trust him for now," Tsubaki said glancing back at the figure as he stood at the top of the stairs looking up. "He doesn't even know where he is, if he is a Kishin then we'll stop him, but for now I think we should help him."

They looked at her but then Artorias, "He is powerful, if we can get him to work with us it'd definitely benefit us..." Maka thought aloud, though sounding unsure.

"Well Lord Death does still want to see him, maybe we can decide then," Soul suggested and Maka nodded.

"Alright, we'll take him to Lord Death," she said and the other two nodded and walked up the stairs where Artorias stood. When they approached him he was mumbling something to himself very quietly, none of them could understand what he was saying. When they drew closer he stopped and glanced back at them, "Did you say something?" Maka asked curiously.

"Just a prayer," he said and gestured for them to lead the way, they opened the doors for him and he had to duck a bit to fit through, he seemed used to it though. As they walked down the halls Artorias drew many stares but didn't seem to care as they led him to the Death Room.

* * *

"Ah, so this must be the soul we detected, hello," Death said in a jolly tone. Artorias studied the creature; it definitely wasn't Nito by far, if anything this 'Death' hardly looked threatening at all. "And what is your name now?" he asked.

"I am Knight Artorias, one of the four knights of Gwyn, Lord of Cinder, my title is Abysswalker. I assume you are the Lord Death I've heard these children talk about." Black Star scoffed but remained silent.

"Yes, I must admit though, I've never heard of a Gwyn before…" Death began.

"I have made amends that I am not where I once thought I was, but the fact still remains to what I once was," Artorias said with a raised hand.

"I see, then it is an honor to meet you ser," Death said with a small bow of his head, Artorias returning the gesture. "If you wouldn't mind me asking, would you accept an invitation to be apart of the DWMA, I am sure you don't carry that sword around for show and we're always willing to accept help."

Artorias' gaze drifted down some as he thought, there was much he didn't know of this land and how it worked, nor did he know what his duties were to be, but he'd figure it out sooner or later. He looked back up, "I will accept, though I have no place for which to stay if I were to be apart of this place, this…school."

"Hmm," Death said looking among the kids that had gathered, "I'm not sure you'd like it here within the school, but I'm sure one of these kids would gladly take up the offer," he said.

Artorias turned and looked at the kids, "Hey, we already have Blair to deal with, I'm not sure there will be enough room for him too," Soul said with slight irritation.

"I'm sure you could stay with Black Star and I," Tsubaki said looking at the blue haired kid, "Right?"

Black Star crossed his arms and looked away, "A man as big as me could accept, but I don't just let random people into my house whenever they feel like coming in," he said stubbornly.

Soul sighed and looked at Maka as they knew no amount of arguing was going to change Black Star's mind, "Well, I guess we can find something," Maka said rubbing the back of her neck.

Artorias nodded, "I will not try to take up important space, I won't have need for much," he said and the two nodded and he turned to Death.

"Then it's settled," he said, "Artorias, you'll stay with Soul and Maka. As you are not a student there will be no need for you to come, but if you want to learn how we do things here you can go classes with them if you choose to," the knight nodded.

"I know not what brought me here, but if I am to stay, then so be it. I look forward what the future may hold," he said and looked at the kids, "Thank you for showing me the way. If you will grant me the knowledge of your accommodations I would be further in debt to you," he said and Maka bowed a bit, smacking Soul on the back of the head so he did the same.

"You're welcome, I promise we'll do our best to help you if you need it," she stood straight and held out her hand, "My name is Maka, I'm a meister, and Soul is my weapon," she said.

Artorias stared at the hand for a moment, he had seen humans greet each other with such things before, but never had one approached him with such a gesture. He reached out slowly with his left hand and took the smaller hand, she smiled and shook it with a firm grip and let go.

She waved her hand to her other friends, "And this is Tsubaki and Black Star, if you didn't already know," she said and Artorias nodded. "Lord Death, is it alright if we leave the school to show Artorias where we live?" she asked.

"Well I don't see the harm, I'm sure while you're at it you can show him around the city too," he said and the girl nodded. "Tsubaki and Black Star, why don't you head back to class while Maka and Soul show Artorias around, if we have another assignment for you we'll call you down," he said and the two nodded and walked out.

"I would assume I may have to lower my standards as there seem to be things I can foresee offending either myself or my honor. I will try to control myself but there are certain things I may not let pass," the knight said and Lord Death nodded.

"So long as you don't kill any students I'm sure there shouldn't be any problems," he responded.

Artorias bowed, "I am appreciative of the hospitality and I am looking forward to returning the favor, now, may we be off?" he asked and Maka nodded.

"Goodbye Lord Death," she said and Soul waved and the three walked out.

* * *

Death thought as he watched the trio walk out of the Death Room. The knight's soul was very shrouded, not even he could detect its power level, but he could feel it, and it grew seemingly stronger every moment. He was interested to see how Artorias fought, but he didn't know exactly what kind of power he had so determining what kind of mission to send him on would be tough. In any case, it was good the knight was fighting for them, he was bound to prove valuable in the future; that was for certain.

* * *

**AN: Hello again, I hope you enjoyed the story, and if not then that's fine, I know I'm still not the best at this. Like I said before, I hope you guys can leave a couple reviews to maybe tell me what it is I might be doing wrong, such as the way a character acts or whatnot. I'm also sorry if it got a bit confusing at parts, like I said, still not the best at explaining things sometimes, especially emotions. Thanks for reading though and please leave a review telling me your thoughts, if it does need improvement then certain mistakes will repeat unless pointed out. I'm still not 100% on the direction i'm going to take with this but I hope you guys enjoy and have a good day!**


	2. Chapter 2

The Abyssal Ch. 2

After getting a short tour of the city and being shown a route from the school, they arrived at the kid's home. He was led into a small building, up a flight or two of stairs, and now stood in front of a doorway with the two children waiting for one of them to open the door. Artorias had rested his sword into its holder as there was no need to continue carrying it around, but he was forced to hunch a bit more in the hallway so its hilt wouldn't scrape the ceiling.

Maka opened the door and stepped in with Soul and Artorias behind her. The ceiling was thankfully higher and Artorias was able to stand to his full height without hitting it; he took a moment to examine the small living space. He'd never been inside human dwellings before and he was aware there were certain things he'd probably not see here as he would in Anor Londo and vise versa. He had not, however, expected to see what he did. The design was nothing he'd seen before, nothing in the city was truly, it was strangely laid out and while it had the furnishings he expected, chairs, a table or two, the basics, it also had things he'd never seen before.

There were fixtures which hung from the ceiling that had little balls of light on them, but they seemed more tangible than sorceries he'd seen. Before he could continue his thought, Maka turned to him with a smile, "Well, this is it, I'm not sure what a knight is used to but I can show you around," she said nicely. Artorias nodded and Maka waved him forward while Soul followed, "This is the kitchen," she said making a sweeping gesture with her hand. "I don't know if you know how to cook or not, but if not I do most of it around here." She looked around and drew closer to Artorias and held up a hand to shield her words away from anyone that wasn't him, "Soul and Blair have tried but I'm the only one who has yet to almost set the apartment on fire," she whispered.

Artorias glanced at the pale haired boy as he opened up a large white box in the kitchen and withdraw a metallic cylinder, which he promptly popped open and brought to his lips, a drink? Noting his gaze, Maka seemed interested in his curiosity, "That's the fridge, we use it to keep our food and drinks cold," she said.

Soul lowered the cylinder and let out a refreshed breath, "Ah, nothin' like a good soda," he said and crushed the cylinder easily and tossed it to a bin next to Artorias. It was going to be a clear miss, he caught it in the air over the bin and examined the now crushed light metal. He inspected it, giving it a small amount of force, it moved easily the way he wanted it to; it would make terrible armor but it seemed as though it was only used to house liquids, so he could digress.

He looked at the bin and dropped the crushed metal into it, "Nice catch," Maka commented. She gestured for Artorias to follow and began to point out rooms, "That's the dining room over there, living room, the bathroom, my room, Soul's room, and the guest room." She looked up at him, "You can stay in the guest room if you like but Blair has been staying with us recently and she sleeps there, mostly," she added spitefully. "If you want to stay in either my room or Soul's I wouldn't blame you, I'm sure we could work something out."

Artorias tilted his head slightly in curiosity at the human's obvious anger toward the individual staying with them. "Is there something wrong with this, Blair?" he asked.

"Well…" Maka began the guest door opened to reveal a young looking, purple-haired woman in a tight, short black dress and wearing a witch hat.

She was stretching her arms and yawning, "Soul, you're home early, do you finally want to play?" she asked with slight seduction. Maka cleared her throat and the woman peeked and eye open and looked at her before her attention focused on Artorias, "Me-ow," she said and walked over to the knight. She circled him, tracing a finger around him as she did so, "And who are you darling?" she asked pressing against his chest and looking up into his hood.

"His name is Artorias, he'll be staying with us for a while," Soul said, slightly thankful the crazy cat was finally off him, at least for now.

Artorias raised a brow as he thought he heard the girl purr, "So you'll be staying in the guest room, with me?" she asked delightfully.

"So it may seem," he replied flatly, she seemed pleased with his answer and got off his chest. She smiled, looked at Soul and winked, he stiffened and his face went pale, she giggled and walked back to the guest room swaying her hips and closed the door.

"Yeah, she's a character," Maka said with sarcasm barely hidden in her voice. Artorias raised an eyebrow and looked at the girl, "I'd give you a look into the room, but she could be doing anything now, so…" She rocked back and forth on her feet and looked around, "So, are you hungry, it's kinda late and I can cook some food and then we can just hang around for a while or something?"

Artorias replied with a nod and she smiled with a tilt of her head and walked into the kitchen as she prepared to cook something, grabbing an apron and taking out some pans. He watched as Soul walked past him and fell back onto a large, cushioned chair, well it wasn't really it chair, it was far too long and was made of a fabric. He walked up as Soul picked up a small black thing with little buttons on it as Artorias placed a hand on the furniture and felt it sink down a little, interesting. He'd not seen this before, it was like a mix between a bed and a normal chair save how long it was.

Soul pointed the small device he had at black box not far from where he was and it flickered on to show a woman in more strange clothing talking about the weather. Artorias watched it carefully, studying it. He looked back down at the thing Soul had and the kid, seeming to sense his gaze, looked up.

"You…need something?" he asked and Artorias said nothing but looked at the child for a moment before returning his attention to the device he had, then looking at the black box. Soul frowned a little in confusion and looked at what he had in his hand, then the box, "You've never seen a TV before?" he asked.

Maka spoke up from the kitchen, "He's a knight idiot, do you really think they had television back then."

"Yeah, yeah," he said waving a dismissive hand and looking back up at the knight, "Take a seat, maybe I can explain." Artorias walked around the bed-chair hybrid and gently sat down, the cushions straining a bit, but holding. "Cool," Soul said, it wasn't that chilly, "well since the couch didn't give in," was that what it was called, "let's get to it." He sat forward and showed Artorias what was in his hand, "This is a remote, the big red button here turns the TV on and off," he gave an example and the box went black before sparking to life again. "The numbers change the channel, these adjust the volume…" and so it went on as Soul explained how the buttons work and everything before even showing Artorias the other electronics in the house.

By the time he was done, Maka had finished making the food, "Food's ready when you are," she said happily and set it down at the table.

Blair came out of the room as Soul sat down next to Maka, Artorias looked down at the small wooden chair, he may have not been that heavy, but he knew for a fact that fragile little thing would never be able to hold him. He frowned and looked around as Blair watched him curiously with Maka and Soul as he moved the chair aside and took his sword off his back, placing it carefully against the wall.

He walked over to the table and knelt down, he was pretty much level with the Soul and Maka, Blair taking a spot beside him. The meal was comprised of a big pot of soup and cooked sandwiches with a gooey yellow substance in the center.

"Soup and grilled cheese, alright," Soul said eagerly with a smile and reached forward and grabbed two halves of a sandwich as Maka filled a bowl with soup and passed it to him. She repeated this process for everyone, serving herself last as everyone except Artorias grabbed one of the sandwiches. He looked down at the smoking soup, it looked and smelled quite nice, but it was a moment before he reached forward and grabbed one of the hot sandwiches and placed it on his plate. He looked up at Soul, who dunked his sandwich in his soup and ate it when its dripping had slowed, hardly holding back in devouring it. Maka was eating her sandwich at her own slow pace and taking spoonfuls of her soup; Blair seeming to be a mixture of the two as she ate faster than Maka but not as furiously as Soul.

Artorias finally raised his hands slowly, not noticing everyone stopping what they were doing and watching him carefully, waiting for a look at his face. Instead of removing his helmet and lowering his hood, his hands clasped themselves together and Artorias whispered a small prayer under his breath, as was standard of most knights before a meal. When he finished he raised his head a little and grabbed a spoon and dunked it into the soup, he waited for it to stop dripping and brought it to his face, that was when he saw the others stares.

He lowered his hand a little, "Is something the matter?" he asked slowly and cautiously.

Maka just shrugged and continued eating, "You eat with your hood on?" Soul asked confused.

"I see no reason in taking it off," was his response, Soul shrugged and returned to devouring his food. Artorias finally brought the spoon of soup to his mouth and felt the slightly cooled liquid run across his tongue and down his throat. It was very good soup and he got three more spoonfuls in before he noticed Blair watching him, her chin in the palm of her hand as her elbow rested on the table, a strange look on her face; strange to Artorias at least.

"Yes?" he asked slowly, not sure what to make of the woman.

"Hm, oh nothing," she said innocently, sitting straight up again and swirling her soup around with her spoon as she smirked and glanced at him; Artorias, confused, thought a second before returning to eating. The food itself was quite nice, however, the table had an awkward silence hanging around it for most of the meal as everyone kept to themselves.

When he finished, about the same time as everyone else, he thanked Maka for the meal and she smiled and took his bowl and plate as well as juggling the rest of the dishes over to the kitchen. She first grabbed a small clear container and placed all the left over sandwiches in it, placed a red lid on it, and put it in the fridge, he wondered if she had done the same thing with the soup were there been any left. Maka then walked back to where the other dishes were and began to wash them as Blair and Soul went to do their own things.

Artorias frowned as he watched the girl, it was not as though she was a servant nor was she treated like one, in truth it was as if she ran the house, but to him it seemed as though she acted as one. However, he was caught between what he should do, due to his knighthood and high status he had never been bothered with such trivial tasks, but he also was no Gough who seemed most connected to humans and those lower than him than most. She did not seem to mind doing the task though as she was done within minutes anyway, but it still tugged at him for one reason or another.

Artorias decided to look into the guest room as he was most likely going to be staying here some time; he walked to the room and ducked through the doorway and looked around the room. Upon entering he saw a small bed, a dresser, a closet with a folding door, and a window at the back of the room with a windowsill big enough for someone to sit on. The room was fairly neat and undisturbed and Artorias had no trouble navigating around it.

The bed definitely would never be able to hold his size and weight, but that mattered not to him as he could really sleep anywhere because when one could sleep through what he could, the place in which you dozed made no difference. There was a spot next to the bed that was under the window that he could use and since he liked to look upon the stars it was an added bonus. As for his things, he would need to fix his armor and sword every now and then, therefore, he could leave most everything in his box and his sword could just stay with him.

It appeared as though it was getting late out, he could tell by looking out the window to see the sky had grown red and the hideous sun was low. He grabbed his bottomless box and knelt in front of the windowsill, placing the small storage device on it as he did so. He opened the lid and reached in and pulled out a journal covered in a blue cloth. Unfolding the fabric, Artorias pulled out a new-looking, black leather book and set the cloth aside and closed the box. He pulled his sword off his back and set it beside him and sat back against the wall and looked at the book in his hands. In it were records of their fight with the great dragons, and after them, the demons spawned after the Witch Izalith's failed attempt to recreate the first flame. It bore his thoughts of both wars and how their battles were going, about how many had died on the battlefield that day, the mood of those under him, how he himself felt inspired by some of the soldiers he saw. It held the events important to his heart, the day he was awarded his ring from Gwyn himself, the day he was forced to compact with the creatures of the Abyss. But it also held those precious memories that he held dear, and would prefer not forgotten.

While his skills with a pencil were not quite up to par with his swordsmanship necessarily, he was still appreciative of his ability to capture a moment or face in a drawing and in words. There were several sketches of the beasts and demons he came across in his travels, there was at least of each of the four knights save himself as well as some of Alvina, Sif, and the knights under his command doing various things. He flipped a page and smiled sadly as he saw a picture of the time he saw two knights playing chess with improvised pieces, remembering challenging the winner and still losing. His lips slowly straightened and he flipped back to the first page, he decided that if he were not ever to return their in person, at least he could return home in mind and spirit.

It was an hour later and the sky growing darker when he lowered the journal and looked down at his sword lying beside him. Artorias had just been reading of his first thoughts on the weapon when first he received it from the great giant blacksmith of Anor Londo. He sat forward a little and grabbed his box and brought it close to him, reaching in he searched for the items he would need to strengthen the now weakened magical barrier on the sword. He withdrew what he would need, a talisman, a silver soapstone, and a small bundle of souls.

He had done this many times as he and the blade were many centuries old and he chuckled as he still remembered the day he first held the sword and shield in his hands. Artorias drew a circular rune slightly above the ground, the magical properties of the soapstone allowing the particles to float about an inch above the floor. He held the sword in his hand perfectly still as he held the talisman in his other hand and over the sword as he mumbled the words he needed as he drew his arm down the long blade. He placed the sword carefully on the rune and it was held as though supported by the dull glowing soapstone particles alone.

The door opened and Blair walked in with a yawn as Artorias crushed the bundle of souls in his hand and slowly sprinkled it above the blade, the circle beginning to glow brighter. Artorias paid her no mind as he continued mumbling the ancient words, she thankfully remained silent as she crawled onto the bed and watched him with a small interested smile as she rested her slightly tilted head in her palms.

After a minute longer he lowered his hand and placed it below the hilt of the sword, a moment later the circle began to fade and when it finally disappeared, his blade floated slowly into his awaiting palm. He moved it back beside him and slowly fell back against the wall and took a deep breath before looking at the woman.

"You know magic?" she asked, her peculiar smile never leaving her face.

"Some, though I do not know if it is the same as that which you are used to," he replied and looked out the window again to see the sky now becoming black.

"Oh? And why is that?"

He shrugged as he watched the sky, "I am no scholar, but what magic I know is only designed for certain purposes and those purposes do not seem to exist here, for better I hope."

"What kinds of things?" she asked, her face and tone now taking on a more curious route.

Artorias returned his attention to her, "Have you ever needed a light in the dark?" he asked and she seemed in thought for a moment before nodding. "That is my purpose, first to defeat the dragons and give the land hope; then a greater threat arose, the Abyss. It corrupted all things it touched with its darkness, holding creatures that could drive the best knight insane, and it was my duty to halt its spread. To simply end the Abyss was impossible, it is not simply something that can be destroyed, its movements only temporarily halted. Despite Gwyn's sacrifice, there will always be black, eventually the flames will fade, and only darkness will remain." His tone grew quiet, "And not even the best of us can stop that," he said darkly, ending his dark words.

Blair shivered, "Scary," she said.

"Yes," Artorias said grimly, looking back out the window and spotting the hideous grinning moon, blood between its teeth. "The land I come from can be a very scary place indeed." He sighed though, "But here we are beyond the reach of the Abyss I can only hope, and it is for the better."

"Mmm," Blair mumbled in thought, her face reflecting her fatigue of the day. She stretched her arms and yawned, falling back onto the pillow without bothering to remove her hat. She turned her head to him and smiled, "Don't you wanna sleep in a bed?" she asked.

"I do not need one, you are resting in the only other one in any case," Artorias said and she seemed to purr again.

"Exactly," she said with a seductive tone, turning her body on the bed so she could swirl a finger on his chest plate.

Artorias stared her down, "No," he said simply and looked out the window again.

"Pooh," she said with a sarcastic pout, obviously unphased by his rejection, and it was not long before he heard her sleeping. Sleep was something Artorias barely needed and rarely did, but something he appreciated the luxury of having. Now though, he watched the stars instead until he decided to close his eyes and rest.

When he opened them again it was morning and there was a smell of food in the air, looking over he saw the guest room door was open and there was a gentle sizzling sound coming from the kitchen. He looked back out the window however and heard Maka say something, "Soul, drag yourself out of bed and eat some breakfast, it's almost time for school," she said happily. He heard Blair but could not distinguish the words; there was silence until he heard Maka again, "Soul…" her voice now menacing. Suddenly he heard a crash, instantly Artorias grabbed his sword and ran out the door, taking care to duck.

"YOU JERK!" he heard Maka cry and when he got to Soul's door he ducked in and barely managed to catch her kicking Soul out the window with her following.

Blair was sitting on the bed looking at the window curiously as Artorias stood in the doorway stupefied. She looked at him and closed her eyes in a jolly smile, "Oh hi, good morning," she said happily with a wave.

* * *

Artorias followed the children up the steps and into the academy as he let them guide him to where he needed until he became familiar, that and they were to go to the same destination. As like the day before, he drew many stares and whispers in the crowded halls of the great place, many students getting out of his and his two companions way. They turned into classroom with a sign over it reading 'Class Crescent Moon', the room itself already being mostly filled. The room also was filled with quiet conversations as Artorias ducked in behind Soul and Maka, he could foresee all these low doorways eventually posing an issue, but that was beside the point.

He took a moment to observe the classroom, standing in front of the doorway a little as he watched Soul and Maka take their seats one row from the back. Artorias felt something bump into him from behind and stepped out of the way as two girls looked at him with sneers on their faces at first before realizing who he was, their sneers disappeared and their faces paled and they rushed to their seats. He picked out a spot and walked up to the top row and sat behind Soul and Maka where there were open seats on either side of him.

He had not been in a classroom much before and those other times had not been on good occasions; many strange things could happen at the Dragon Academy of Vinhiem. As awkward as it was to him, there wasn't even a teacher in the classroom yet so he sat patiently, listening to Soul and Maka talk about their missing teacher and what happened to him, it ended with Soul scaring Maka and getting a book to the head.

The door opened and a man with red hair, a black suit, and a cross shaped tie walked in with a clipboard under his arm, he wasted no time getting right to it. "Alright kids, quiet down, class is about to start," he took a couple steps to the desk in front of the class. "I'm not going to take attendance," he said almost lazily it seemed, "but I will tell you one thing right now," he set the clipboard down on the desk, "anyone who thinks the bell decides when class is over is wrong. I do, ya hear" he said pointing a thumb to himself, Artorias guessed he liked the attitude of the man, all the other students seemed to be fascinated with him.

Soul leaned over a bit to Maka, "Hey, is it just me or is your stupid dad making that goofy face again right at us," Artorias saw what he meant, the man seemed to have a very strange look upon him that seemed to search for approval.

"Um, I think it's just you," Maka replied, she looked away a bit, "And please, do not refer to him as my father," harsh.

Soul sat up a little, "What's up with this Death-Scythe, are you supposed to be our new teacher now or something?"

The man was looking at the clipboard, "I'm just a substitute, until they could find someone who could fill Sid's position permanently." He lowered his head and his tone became slightly dark, "That still means I'm in charge of this class however," he looked back up with a look of great irritation. "So that means as long as I'm here you will refer to me as professor Death-Scythe," he snapped with a hiss, Artorias found his respect for the man quickly draining. Suddenly the teacher stood up straight and his face took on an extremely relaxed one, "Alright then, let's take attendance."

"You said you weren't going to take those," Soul said angrily.

The mans arm began to move in a way Artorias never thought possible as it began to move like a wave, "I'm not going to take attendance for the guys, but I think I will for all the ladies," Artorias' gauntleted hand found its way to the bridge of his nose.

Soul stood, "Dammit stop being a creep!" he shouted, no one seemed to take anyone seriously.

"Oh please," Maka muttered irritably.

The man licked the pen as he looked at the list, seeming to find what he was looking for he wrote something down and lowered the clipboard. He clapped his hands, "Alright, let's get started now."

He barely finished when Soul's foot now went up onto the desk, "Hey old man! What did you write down?" he shouted. Artorias certainly didn't like the kids attitude but it was obvious these two had something against one another.

The sighed, "Aaah, that reminds me," he said turning, "Maka, Soul, and…" he looked at something, "Artorias?"

"Yeah what is it?" Soul asked.

"Lord Death would like to see you in the Death room. You've been excused from class so get going," he said waving the clipboard, "Shoo, shoo."

"He wants to see us?" the two in front of him asked in unison, Artorias shrugged and stood, he walked down the steps after the kids and together they walked out and down the hall. They walked until they reached a large black metal door with a red out line and a design similar to Lord Death's mask way up high on it; it was one of the only doors in the whole academy that he didn't need to duck through.

Maka knocked on it and it opened for them, they walked down the long guillotine pathway in silence until Maka spoke up at last since they left the room, "I wonder why Lord Death wants to see us," she thought aloud.

"Who knows," was Soul's simple reply.

"I would assume it is another task, no?" Artorias asked and the two shrugged.

"Maybe," Maka said somewhat skeptical.

After a moment he felt like he was being watched, then he heard shouting, "Assassin's rule number 1: dissolve into darkness and erase your breath! Wait for an opening to attack your target!" He spun around with his hand on the hilt of his sword as it rested on his back, the kids seemed unchanged by the shouting.

Up above they saw Black Star with his arms outstretched and two scythes in his hands, "Oh hey look, it's Black Star," Maka commented.

Artorias relaxed a bit, removing his hand from his sword and letting it rest again at his side. Black Star seemed startled they had noticed him, "Hey Black Star, what are you doing up there shouting like an idiot?" Soul called out.

Artorias saw one of the scythes glow gold and Tsubaki's head popped up, she said something to him to which he laughed, made a comment about how big a star he was, and jumped down, Tsubaki in her human form when she landed. "Oh well," he said continuing, "that's a disadvantage I think I can handle." He turned to Tsubaki, "Pretty big of me huh Tsubaki?"

Her hesitation lasted so shortly Artorias hardly caught it, but she made a small giggle, "Oh yes," she said with a cheery smile. Artorias remained stern as he looked the two up and down, he knew people like this kid, soldiers who acted like him, they were brave and confident, but it only took one mistake, one failure that could not be taken back, that could cost lives.

But he kept to himself as they closed in on the center of the room, a large mirror coming into view. "So what are you guys doing here, you get called by Lord Death too?" Soul asked casually as the four walked up the steps to the raised platform before he did.

"What if we did?" Black Star replied and Soul just shrugged as Maka approached the large mirror.

"Here, I'll call him," she said and Artorias looked with interest as she breathed on the reflective glass and drew in numbers with her fingers, "42-42-564 when you want to knock on Death's door." Suddenly the mirror began to ring and ripples like that on water would expand across the mirror with each sound. It began to glow brightly, "Lord Death, are you there?" Maka asked after she had taken a step back.

The glow faded and an image of Death appeared in a black room with a light shining down on him, "Yeah, Yeah," he replied fairly quickly, "Hi, hello, what's up? Thanks for coming," he said leaning forward.

"Scythe Meister Maka reporting in sir."

"Yeah and Dark Art Meister Black Star too."

"And Tsubaki, I'm his partner," Artorias gave a small nod.

"Well, what did you want with us?" Soul asked.

"Right, I have a little assignment for you guys to take on."

"An assignment?" the four kids asked in unison, Artorias remained unsurprised.

Death raised a giant white hand to his as though to cover what he was about to say, "Some…extra lessons," he said like he was tipping them off some unknown information.

Maka seemed to panic a little bit, "What? You mean those extra lessons stupid people get? Those lessons!"

Soul turned around as though t walk out, "Well screw that, I'm going to be a death scythe, I'm way too cool for extra lessons." He didn't move otherwise, perhaps it was because Death resumed talking, asking them about their duties as Meisters, to which Maka answered in a very serious tone. Artorias was intrigued, to say the least, at how souls worked in this realm, though in truth it was not all that different from his own as weapons needed to be tempered and fixed and it often required the sacrifice of several souls and generally a piece of titanite.

"Yes, and do you know how many souls all of you have managed to collect?" both of his giant white hands appeared with the thumb and index fingers touching to form and 'O', "Exactly zero."

Everyone's face was hit with shock, their skin paling at the revelation, all except Black Star, who laughed. Then a white hand came out of the mirror and slammed his face into the ground, Artorias could have sword he saw a brief puff of smoke come from the boys head.

"This isn't something to laugh about, chuckles. Anyway, are you ready to learn what your extra lessons will entail?" Death said looking at Maka, though everyone else still seemed pale at the news of their progress. "Maybe you've already heard the rumors, about Sid, who taught here at the academy until recently," Artorias sighed and stood a shaky Black Star up as he was still face-first in the ground.

"Sid?" Soul asked with his head hanging, sounding as though out of breath, "I was right, it wasn't just a story."

"Yeah," Maka said staring blankly up at death, "but a zombie? I always thought he was a really good teacher." Black Star stopped leaning around and fell forward on his face again, Artorias sighed and abandoned the lost cause.

Death began to explain the teacher Sid, who had been murdered by getting a miniature statuette to the head; the way he was being described made Artorias wonder how the man had allowed _that_ to happen.

When Death had finished explaining their mission, Black Star suddenly shot up, "Okay, you can leave it all to me sir! So basically for our extra lesson all we gotta do is take out these guys?"

"Yep, that's pretty much it," Death said, "Oh and one more thing. Not that I want to put too much pressure on you, but if you happen to fail these extra lessons," his hand popped out again only this time he held it in more of a threatening gesture. "You will all be expelled."

"What?" Tsubaki, Soul, and Maka all yelled at once, all of them nearly jumping back, "You're gonna kick us out?"

Black Star laughed, "There's nothing to worry about, I can take care of guys like this in my sleep!" he said with confidence.

"Well, that will be all, you kids can go now," Black Star walked out with confidence as the other three somewhat stumbled after him, Artorias was about to turn and follow when Death said his name. "Artorias, a moment please," he said and the knight looked at figure in the mirror.

"You do not need to be apart of this exercise and I should warn you, there is no real danger here, I promise, but if you should choose to help them then it is your choice and no one will stop you."

Artorias nodded, "I understand, and I am not to tell the children correct?"

Death nodded, "Correct, I should also mention that should you choose to just watch then it would be an excellent way to learn how we do things around here, that or just how your possible future squadmates work."

Artorias again nodded, seeing the point in the argument, "I will try my best, but should I be dragged in I will not hesitate," he said.

"Alright, try not to kill anyone," Death said in a way of goodbye and the mirror faded to black before once again reflecting the room.

Artorias turned and walked down the small steps and down the guillotine path to the large door, he opened it and stepped out to see his three of his four companions laying on the ground and the last one tapping his foot impatiently.

"What took you so long? You're lucky I chose to wait, next time I won't be so lenient," Black Star said.

"Lord Death and I shared words, he said I am to accompany you on this task of yours," He said and the three on the ground seemed to liven up to the point of sitting up.

"That's very reassuring," Maka said with a relaxed breath.

"…But that I do not need to intervene unless I see it necessary," he said and they fell forward again.

Black Star waved a dismissing hand, "Psh, I don't see what you're so worried about, I could do this mission by myself but Lord Death insists you guys come along anyway. Let's get moving, or do you want to get expelled?" Black Star asked and Artorias at least gave it to the kid for keeping it together as the three began to drag their faces down the hall.

Artorias sighed and stepped forward, reaching down he picked them all up and threw Maka and Soul over his right Shoulder and Tsubaki over his left. Black Star shrugged and walked down the hall with his chest pumped forward, Artorias not far behind as they made their way to the cemetery.

* * *

**AN: Hey guys, sorry for the late update, between my computer not cooperating, temporary writers block, and not free time, it was a little hard to push this one out. Sorry if it's not as interesting as the first chapter, but hey, we're getting somewhere so no complaints over here. I do apologize for how long it took though, trust me I really wanted to push this one out sooner, but we all have our vises. **

** Hope you guys enjoy and if you could leave a review that would be great, I really want to know how I'm doing and feedback is one of the best ways to help improve. Thanks for reading it in any case and I hope you liked it, have a good day all!**


	3. Chapter 3

The Abyssal Ch. 3

After a while Tsubaki got a hold of herself and Artorias set her down as they made their way to their destination. When the sky began to darken and they were ten minutes from the cemetery, Soul asked to be set down and was while Maka continued to mumble incoherently on Artorias' shoulder about how she didn't deserve this. Soon they reached the cemetery, it was definitely an odd one in Artorias' eyes as hooks hung from the trees and there was a lingering fog that added to the already dark atmosphere.

"This is the place?" he asked for reassurance.

"Yeah, Sid was buried here after he died," Soul responded, he seemed fairly angry about something as he growled and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Come out! Nap time's over zombie!"

Artorias shook his head with a disappointed sigh as Soul and Black Star ran into the cemetery. He and Tsubaki passed under the metal sign and he set Maka down in front of a tree, which she proceeded to turn around on and slide down, moaning all the way. Tsubaki walked over to where Black Star was as they looked for Sid's grave, stopping at a cross that stuck out of the ground and looking down at it, Black Star didn't seem to have the anger fueled energy Soul had at the moment anymore.

"Hey Tsubaki, this is Sid's grave isn't it? Sure this is where we wanna start looking? Don't zombies get up and move around a lot?" he asked as he inspected the grave. Artorias walked over to one of the trees and held one of the metal hooks in his palm as he inspected it, thinking of the slowly growing pandemic that was occurring in Lordran before he left. He was unsure if the undead here were anything like they were in his realm, there surely would be many more and it seemed a surprise to many that the dead were walking, so maybe it was a very rare occurrence. Since this Sid character was still trying to reason with children before attacking meant he either had yet to go hollow or they did not have to deal with that problem.

Right now it made no difference however as he was either to be put down or not, and as he had been informed, there was no danger to the children, so he doubted ending Sid would be necessary. "Well it would be safe to check this place first just to make sure he isn't here," he heard Tsubaki respond to Black Star, returning Artorias from his thoughts.

Artorias looked around cautiously as Soul shouted insults at Sid, wherever he may be, while Black Star and Tsubaki examined the grave more, "It seems like an ordinary gravestone to me," Black Star said in thought.

Artorias walked over as Soul began to laugh crazily, he and Tsubaki looked at the insane child as he wandered the cemetery, "Soul seems to be…a bit disturbed," she commented.

"Tis a good way of saying it," Artorias said before glancing over to Maka, "She does not seem to be faring any better."

They all looked at her as she muttered something they couldn't understand, "What's up with Maka anyway, she seems kinda down?" Black Star asked.

"She has taken the situation very seriously," Artorias said still watching Maka.

Tsubaki turned to the blue haired child, "Black Star aren't you the least bit worried about all this?" he seemed very confused by what she meant judging from the look on his face.

"Where the hell are you hiding?!" Soul shouted very loudly, Black Star wrapping an arm around his friends shoulder as he came up to him.

"Hey Soul, why don't you go and piss on Sid's grave? What'd you think about that?"

"Yeah and while we're at it, why don't we take a dump on it too!" Tsubaki seemed a bit embarrassed by the way they were acting as she moaned and looked away; Artorias pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance as he fought walking over there and slamming the two disrespectful whelps heads together as they began taunting Sid more.

While he knew the man was technically no longer dead, Artorias still could not ignore the utter disrespect they had toward the dead, especially one who used to be looked up to. Tsubaki backed into him a bit and he looked down at her and wondered what she was doing when he saw the fear on her face, "Okay guys, I think you can stop now," she said loudly.

Artorias' face straightened as felt what Tsubaki had; he heard the shouting from the two boys stop as they looked around. Maka, still laying against the tree he had rested her on, stiffened as she felt what they had as the ground below her erupted, a blue hand grasping her ankle and lifting her into the air. They all spun around as they saw Sid holding Maka upside-down in the air, a sharp stick in his other hand.

"Maka!" Soul shouted in surprise, Artorias silently scolded them for not paying more attention, had the enemy been trying to kill them one would already be dead by their ignorance.

"Are you scared girl?" Sid asked menacingly, "I think you are," he pulled his arm back and was ready to strike when Soul transformed and slammed into the ground between them, forcing Sid to drop Maka and retreat back several steps.

Artorias raised his hand to the hilt of his sword and pulled it out enough that it just rested on his shoulder and took several steps out of the way and looked on, ready to observe, study, and intervene if necessary.

"So this is what Sid has become," Maka said grimly as Sid stood in the middle of Maka and Soul and Tsubaki and Black Star.

Sid seemed to loosen his shoulders and looked at neither of the pairs on either side of him, "Maka, Soul, Black Star, Tsubaki…good morning, good after noon, good night," he said as he took a step toward his tombstone. He placed his hands under each arm of the cross that was his tombstone and pulled, the ground resisting his force. Artorias knew the strength of an undead, as he had faced many, no matter how weak they may have been in life they always seemed to exert so much more than they once were capable of.

"How have you been?" the zombie continued, managing to break the tombstone free of the ground and raised it enough so he could fit it under his arm. "I always tried to remember my manner, that's the kind of man I was," he said looking over at Maka and Soul.

Artorias heard Black Star whisper to his companion, "Tsubaki, let's get ready to end this guy," he said quietly and she took a stance.

"Right," she replied equally as hushed, She began to glow and changed shape, the light taking form of two scythes connected by a chain as each floated above Black Star's hands before dropping into them.

Maka grabbed Soul, who he himself was a scythe, and spun him expertly with one hand before she gripped the weapon with her other hand. "Tell me Sid, why are you doing this?" she asked, watching him intently, it was the look of a warrior scanning their opponent for any signs of possible weaknesses, it intrigued him.

"Ding Dong, Dong Ding," Sid said, "Being a zombie is amazing; there are so many more things I can get away with now." Maka tensed and Black Star seemed to relax as he lowered his arms and watched Sid, "Class is in session," he said turning to Black Star now, "and I always was the sort of man to start class right with the bell; punctuation is important."

"This'll be fun," Black Star said with a smirk, "I get to teach you a lesson now, teacher," he leaned toward now taking a stance again, "And since it's coming from me you know it's going to be a big one." Artorias' expression remained unchanged, he had thought it before and he will again, the child is reckless, and from what he just heard it's not changing. He may be powerful but if he doesn't use his head then there is no point to having the power; the forces must be balanced. That or the individual must be smarter than they are strong or it will bring about their demise.

"We don't want to be expelled so we'll take your extra lesson," said a disembodied voice that sounded similar to Soul's. "But I gotta say, I don't know what we're going to learn from a decaying piece of flesh," oh one could learn many things from a decaying piece of flesh, undead through his old land were a perfect example.

"If you become a zombie, then death no longer looms over you. You can escape from fear and be free," Sid said in their direction.

"That's wrong and you know it," Maka responded, "You were never the type of man who would say that!"

Sid took to the air, wielding the tombstone as his weapon like it was no more than wooden club, "You'll understand when you're DEAD!" he cried and swung his weapon of choice. Black Star swung his arm quickly and one of the scythes wrapped round the top of the cross in Sid's arms, the chain almost seeming to have increased in length.

Sid seemed unaffected that his attack was stopped but looked over his shoulder at Black Star as Maka seemed quite the opposite. "No need to thank me for the lesson, it's on the house," he said.

Sid began to turn his body as he planted a firm foot, "I never was the kind of man," he threw his arm forward with all his strength and ripped Black Star right off the ground as he hit Maka with his tombstone, sending them both flying, "To hold Back!" Artorias tensed, that was a very hard hit with a damned tombstone, how Maka would be able to come out of that one he knew not. But against what he had thought, the two fighters both managed to land on their feet, leaving him thoroughly surprised and interested.

Sid stood still for a moment, watching them, "I recommend you give up now, one star meisters don't stand a chance of beating me."

Artorias heard Soul as he shouted about just wanting to get this over with quickly. He also watched as Maka quietly spoke to her squad, Soul seemingly to ignore whatever she had said most likely as he shouted another insult at Sid. Artorias found this concept relatively normal among fights, often taunts and words of wisdom are shared between combatants to either provoke or help teach, and there seemed to be no lack of words exchanged now as Maka charged after Sid made another comment about how, when he was done, he'd kill them all.

Sid blocked her attack with his tombstone and shoved her away with it, "What's wrong, why aren't you working together?" he yelled as Maka slid to a stop on her feet. "You have to establish a connection between the souls of weapon and meister," this was not unheard of for an enemy to give advice, Artorias himself had done it many times, though none seemed to try an heed it to their mistake.

"You're giving advice to the enemy?" Black Star asked as he jumped down from one of the trees ready to strike.

Hearing him incoming, Sid looked over his shoulder and Artorias shook his head, again the boy had given away a perfectly good sneak attack, "I've always been an enthusiastic teacher!" Sid said swinging his tombstone to meet Black Star. The boy was quick though and landed a foot on one of the arms of the cross, Sid finished his swing and sent the boy flying, "That's the kind of man I used to be."

Artorias circled the fighters as he continued to watch, his weapon safely in its holder now, he had a certain respect for Sid, as one always should have for one's enemies, and a growing one for the children's fighting capabilities. Surely they could not have been older than sixteen or such and here they were fighting quicker and stronger than some warriors he had found in his travels.

Sid took to the air very quickly after Black Star, "And now I'll teach you how to die!" he said as he was now over the kid. He pulled his arm holding his tombstone back over his head and brought it down on Black Star, he cried something else and together they plunged into the ground. When they landed a large purple explosion erupted and dust swirled high into the air in the shape of a cross, Artorias turned his head against the incoming cloud of dust and turned again to see what had happened; this was definitely new to him.

"Black Star!" he heard Maka shout but he could not see her through all the dust, not until it cleared a bit. He then saw Sid walking up with his tombstone rested against his shoulder. He lectured her again on the freedom of becoming a zombie as Artorias circled around again to see Black Star; who grumbled and began to sit up without the use of his arms, which were busy clutching his weapon.

"Ugh, my head is killing me. All your preaching is starting to give me a headache to stupid zombie," there was a small stream of blood on the boys head as he tried to stand, Artorias had to admit that the boy could really take a hit as he sat in a small crater that was made by him hitting the ground so hard. "I'm not listening to any lesson of yours, it doesn't matter what you say. Who's going to pay attention to a rotting corpse like you," he stood and jumped into the air, "as long as there's a big star like me around!" he shouted and pulled his arms back and threw one chain scythe. Sid leaned a bit to the side and avoided it as the boy landed.

"Being a three-star meister doesn't matter!" he shouted and threw the other chain scythe, which Sid again avoided by just leaning a bit in the opposite direction as Black Star ran forward with great speed. "I am…Black Star!" he shouted as he landed on one foot in front of Sid and used the other to slam into the zombie's stomach in a power driven kick.

Sid seemed a bit surprised by the attack but was only driven back a couple feet before he jumped away. Artorias replayed the attack in his head with care as he recalled what the child had done, he had distracted Sid with the scythes and hit him in not just the chest, but the solar plexus, one of the weakest spots on the human body. It was a calculated attack and had the target not already been dead it surely would have left him severely or fatally wounded. So when he knew what he was doing he could be a threat, but otherwise he was fairly reckless and only focused on power instead of tactics.

"Tsubaki, shuriken mode," Black Star said and his scythes glowed and changed shape into a giant star. He threw the giant weapon and it spun very quickly through the air. Sid, however, jumped on it and pushed it down, he was now right over Maka and Soul, who to this point had just been watching really. What was interesting, that Artorias was beginning to note, was that despite being sent on this mission together, the two fighters never seemed to fight Sid both at once, when one was done attacking the other would jump in, it was good tactic if they were faster and more successful about it.

Sid cried out something Artorias could not catch again and brought his tombstone down on Maka and Soul, the dust cross standing high in the air again. However when the dust cloud cleared, Maka was in a strange position, but she did avoid it, her feet right below Sid's face.

"People need fear to survive, we experience it so we can grow stronger!" she shouted and kicked Sid in the face, throwing him away from where his tombstone now stood in the ground. And courage is when one acts despite the fear that may grip them, Artorias thought as he watched Maka, though how one distinguishes bravery and recklessness is all in ones actions.

Maka jumped forward and turned slowly until she was facing Sid again in pose signifying she was ready. She then looked at the blade of her scythe with surprise, "But that hasn't worked for us a single time before," she said quietly, she must have been speaking to Soul. She looked back at Sid and slowly raised Soul above her head and spun him very quickly and deftly before bringing him down in a slicing motion.

Artorias approached Black Star from the side, "What are those two doing?" he asked seriously as he heard Soul and Maka shouting together, power seeming to radiate from them.

"I…I think they're trying to use Soul Resonance," he heard Tsubaki as she sat in Black Star's hand. Artorias stood patiently waiting as Sid and Black Star seemed surprised when the blade of Maka's scythe began to glow and she drew the weapon back as the light made the blade grow in size.

"The legendary super-skill of the scythe-meister, Witch Hunter!" she yelled and the blade seemed to make a small explosion of light and grew immensely large, a large eye in the middle surrounded by variety of different colored lights. She swung the weapon but lost her balance mid-swing and instead of the attack going in Sid's direction, she spun around.

"Joy," Artorias said sarcastically and quickly pushed Black Star out of the way as he hopped back, a large slice of light separating the two of them for about two seconds before leaving nothing but a cloud of dust and a large crevice between them. There was much power in the attack, Artorias could feel the power that was radiating off the light, but Maka had made a small mistake and almost hit them instead of Sid.

"Are you trying to kill us?! What the Hell Maka?" Black Star shouted, Artorias thought he'd let this one pass as he surely would have almost killed a knight that risked the lives of their fellows, even if it was an accident.

Maka was holding Soul up and was shouting at him, "Nice! This is all your fault! Do it right idiot!" she cried. Artorias walked over to Sid and stood beside him as he seemed to be largely confused

"What? My fault, you gotta be kidding me! Why is this my fault? You're the idiot here, getting mad at me for no reason!" Soul argued back.

"That was incredible power," he heard Sid mumble

Artorias sighed in pity, "They'd be more efficient if they didn't bicker, I assume this was a problem you had to deal with as well?"

Sid rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly as the others continued arguing, "Yeah, those two hardly ever seem to get along, though I have to admit, if anyone is at fault, it'd be Maka, though no one seems to see it was just an accident."

Artorias shrugged and stepped aside as he knew he should get out of the way, and it was a good thing too because that was when Maka decided to turn and charge Sid, ranting the whole way. "I wanted to do it without a super-skill!" she began, Artorias saw Sid's foot sink into the dry ground, "I just wanted to do things the simple-," she took to the air and swung Soul but the attack missed as her target was sucked into the dirt. "Huh?" she asked aloud in shock, "He's gone."

Black Star's eyes narrowed as he stood motionless, most likely paying close attention to the slightest disturbance. Artorias realized he found himself impressed by the kid at times, that he had his moments, but he had the feeling that those moments were often few and far between.

"No, he's just gone underground," Soul said from Maka's grasp, returning Artorias' attention to the full battleground.

Maka looked around, "He's under there?" she asked, not seeing the quickly growing bulge in the dirt behind her. Black Star moved just before the dirt exploded up, Sid flying out of the ground with his arm ready to strike Maka with a pointed stick. Black Star made it just in time to deflect the attack for his friend and Sid, his attack having failed, fell back into the ground as he dodged an attack from Black Star.

They stood tense and ready, but Black Star eased up a little, "What Sid is using now is the first rule of the assassin."

"Dissolve into the darkness and erase your breath," Tsubaki picked up, "wait for an opening to attack your target."

Black Star raised his hand with one of the chain scythes in them and whispered something, letting go of the other scythe it began to spin around the two fighters slowly on its own before it began spreading out to trees and tombstones until it formed a star just above the ground. There was complete silence as Black Star and Maka stood ready in the middle of the star that the chain created and they waited for something to happen.

Suddenly Sid burst from the ground beside them and was posed to attack, but Black Star's gaze quickly shot to him and he pulled his arm, the chains wrapping around the zombies arms and body. "Trap Star activated," he shouted and the chains kept moving all around them, "I think it's about time to send you back to the grave, you really stink." Artorias' hand found his temples, oh the one-liners.

Black Star shifted his arms and the chains began to coil around Sid…and Maka to everyone's surprise except for Black Star, who laughed hardily at his friends as they were ensnared with Sid in the chains.

"What are doing tying me up along with this guy?" Maka asked kicking her legs into the ground before sitting generally still as she fumed.

"Well I wouldn't have to if you didn't get in my way," Black Star said with a great grin as Artorias walked over. Soul was still in his weapon form and was trying to reach over to where Black Star was as Maka tried to reach him with her leg.

"When I'm done with you you're going to be so DEAD!" she yelled with fire in her eyes.

Tsubaki turned back into her human form but the chain was still connected to her as it led back to her ponytail, Artorias nodded to her and she returned the gesture while Black Star stood laughing. Artorias approached the chain bound people and undid it enough to let Soul and Maka out. Tsubaki tightened the chain quickly so as to not let Sid escape while Artorias caught the two furious teens to stop them from ripping into Black Star.

"Get a hold of yourselves!" he said and set a firm, heavy hand on each of them, almost forcing them to the ground. When they had calmed down he let them go, "Thank you, now, I believe you have someone you must question no?" he asked kneeling down to their level and turning them to Sid.

It wasn't long until Sid just shrugged and pointed them in the direction they needed to go, their destination only several minutes away. The place was very strange indeed with arrows on the ground and what looked like giant stitches on the building itself. They all looked up at the building, each with a different look in their face.

"So this is where we find Stein?" Soul asked seemingly unimpressed, "Let's hurry and finish this guy off, I'm ready for these lessons to be over."

Artorias continued to examine the house, "It's best not to rush, mistakes are bound to happen," he commented.

"You should listen to him, he sounds like he knows what he's doing," Sid said taking a seat behind Tsubaki as he was chained to her hair.

Soul turned to him, "Yeah, well no one asked you," he said and turned back, Artorias let out a sad sigh and looked at Sid, who shrugged and watched the kids. "Huh, there are even zig-zag stitches on his laboratory," he continued before looking down at something skittering on the ground by his foor, ignoring it after several moments.

"Interesting architecture, I wonder what kind of guy this Stein is," Maka said, a drip of sweat on her head. Artorias stepped back a little as the front door creaked open and the sound of something rolling was heard, he was intent on keeping to simply observing this time and only this time, he needed to see how they worked.

"Somethin's coming outta there," Soul said watching the door, though no one seemed to move.

"Prepare yourselves," Artorias warned and Maka and Soul nodded, watching the door closely as they were set ready to move.

A figure rapidly approaching in a chair with wheels appeared in the darkness. When he reached the door, however, one of the wheels hit the bottom part of the door frame and he was sent into the air, had he been facing them he'd have landed on his face.

The kids looked among themselves with confusion on their face as the figure stood and patted his white coat before righting his chair, "Dammit. Still doesn't feel quite right." Artorias leaned his head to the side in interest as the figure began to turn a giant bolt that was on the side of his head, making a cranking sound with each turn he made of it. The figure had sat down in the chair and was cranking the bolt when he spoke, "Hm, maybe that'll fix it," he muttered and stood, grabbing the back of the chair as he did so, "Okay, I'm going to try that again," he informed them and he took the chair with him back into the house.

"Um…shouldn't someone stop him?" Soul asked, not sure what to do.

"Well we did just meet him, wouldn't that be…rude?" Maka responded, though unsure.

"I kinda wanna see what happens next," Black Star said.

"Yeah so would I," Tsubaki said quickly.

Artorias raised a brow below his hood as he watched the children before turning his attention to the door, it wasn't his standard procedure to sit by as an enemy planned, but he still wanted to watch and see how they handled the situation, whether he approved or not. The rolling began again and the kids closely watched the door, waiting for Stein to reemerge, this time hopefully the way he wanted to. The results were unchanged however as his chair once again hit the bottom of the door frame and he was toppled over onto the ground.

The wheel on the chair was spinning as the white haired man shifted his head a bit so he could look at the confused children, "Was there something you kids needed me for?" he asked in slight pain. Artorias now had enough time to fully examine the tall man as he was now still on the ground; he had white hair despite his obvious young age, round spectacles that had a glare to them from this angle, and with the bolt he also had a large stitched scar upon his face. His attire matched that of his house and face as his white coat had large stitches as well as his green shirt underneath it, certainly he must be a strange man.

"You're the one who turned Sid into a zombie, you did this," Maka said loudly.

Stein stood and righted the chair before sitting down on it the opposite way, resting his arms on the back of the chair as he hunched over it a bit. "Oh…" he said seemingly unimpressed, "So that's it. I'm guessing you guys are all students from the academy then," he took out a white cylinder from his pocket and put it in his mouth, followed by a small silver canister he held up to his face, he cupped his free hand over the canister and cylinder and a small light appeared. He removed the canister and put it back in his pocket, he breathed in and the white cylinder, whose tip was now an ember, glowed orange slightly as it trailed smoke. Why in Gwyn's name would anyone light something so close to their face?

"Why did you do it?" Maka interrogated, "A grudge? Revenge?"

"No, nothing like that," Stein replied and took the slow burning cylinder out of his mouth and tapped it, a small stream of smoke coming out of his mouth and nose as he exhaled. "I have a far simpler motive, experimentation and observation, that's all a true scientist cares about," he crossed his arms on top of the back of the chair and put his head down a bit, his chin hidden behind his arms as he watched the kids. "And, I am a scientist. Everything in the world is an experimental test subject," he continued as though he was having a normal conversation, "of course that includes myself as well."

That certainly explained the scars, Artorias thought, he also had a lingering feeling the man was very much like what Seeth was becoming, mad. Maka seemed a bit distressed as the doctor stared at them, she whispered something to Soul. Artorias couldn't quite make out what she had said, but he did hear Soul, "Yeah, like what?"

Stein spoke again, "Your soul wavelengths aren't very stable," his posture remained unchanged as he continued, "Once more they're quite different from one another." Maka and Soul seemed surprised at the subject he was talking about, "I see one soul that is careless and arrogant and one that is earnest and strong-willed. They appear to be in resonance but they aren't," he finished, tapping the ashes off the cylinder again.

"What the hell? You mean you can see the soul of someone who's still alive?" Soul asked though not sounding all that shocked or confused, must've just been because of his normal tone. "In that case, you must be a meister."

Maka watched the man intently, "He can also read the characters of the soul too, only the best meisters can do that," she reminded all of them, and giving Artorias another scrap of information about how things work here.

They got into a small debate about how if Maka could do it do, it ended with Maka covering her chest as though exposed and telling Stein to, "shut up and stop looking at [her] soul."

Another voice called out, it was slightly distant, "Yeah shut up little doctor man, no one wants to hear you talk anymore," Black Star's voice cried from above them. Artorias looked up with everyone else at the blue haired child as he stood upon the roof of Stein's residence, how he even got up there he had no idea. "Heeyahoo! Why don't we change the subject to something much more interesting, like me for example."

"When did he…?" Tsubaki began, but saw no use trying to make sense of it.

That and Black Star wouldn't have allowed her to finish as he began talking again, "What does it matter if you can see souls anyway, it's not like you're going to see anything interesting. Black Star crouched down a bit and jumped off where he was standing and landed in a crouch, completely unharmed. Artorias looked down and lifted his foot up a bit slightly before setting it back down, yeah, gravity seemed fine, how did the kid jump over three stories and still be fine? "As far as I'm concerned," Black Star said interrupting his thoughts, "the soul worth looking at is mine."

Stein laughed as he looked at the boy, obviously not intimidated in the slightest, "Yours is an interesting one, that's for certain. Your soul is extremely self-centered and a little bit wild." He brought his hand to his bolt again, "It must be difficult finding a partner with a soul compatible with your own, isn't it?" he asked giving his bolt one sharp turn.

"No more talking!" Black Star said and lunged forward and took to the air towards the scientist, Artorias guessed it was something like a scholar, and lashed out with his foot quickly. Faster though was the man in the chair as he used it as his own weapon, lifting his arm he blocked the attack and pushed the chair with his foot to turn it, spinning back around to use the same arm to deflect another attack.

Black Star was hit away and wasn't facing Stein for a split second, which was all he needed to come flying up behind the child and deliver a powerful uppercut, remaining still in his chair. It shocked everyone else, but Artorias was more impressed with the way the man had defended himself and used just what he was sitting in to his advantage. "Black Star!" Tsubaki cried out in concern, Stein looked at her with interest.

"Ah yes, I see it now, you must be the wild one's partner, you're always willing to compromise and possess a very accepting nature. It makes sense you're the one who's willing to cooperate with his souls wavelength." Artorias looked at the tall girl as she was giving Stein a hard look, but everyone knew she could do nothing to help as she needed to keep Sid confined to his chains.

"Who do you think you are old man?" Soul asked with narrow eyes.

"Now that I've acquired the necessary initial data from all of you," he said with a smile upon his face as Black Star remained still, most likely temporarily unconscious, "it's time for the real experiment to begin." That sounded interesting, Artorias moved a bit closer to the children than where he was before and stood next to Sid.

"Soul," Maka said holding out her hand.

"Right," Soul said and glowed as he transformed into a scythe and landed in her palm, she spun him and held him ready, Stein having rested his chin in the palm of his own hand.

"Ah," he said with interest, "you are indeed Spirit's darling little daughter aren't you? And the daughter of the woman who ended my greatest experiment," he smiled as he seemed to remember fond memories, "I wonder what a fine subject you'd make," he said eerily. Suddenly he rushed forward with his palms ready and his fingers curled at the end, Artorias had seen hand-to-hand masters use that kind of attack before, he knew not what he sought to gain attacking an armed individual from that range who could easily block it though.

As expected, Maka held out Soul and blocked the attack, but then Stein twisted his palm and a spark of light erupted from the point and he spun away one way while Maka and Soul flew away in the other direction.

Maka used Soul to stand herself up, "What did he-?" she began but stopped, Artorias looked closely at the man in the chair as he had spun fully around and held his hand out at the ready again but didn't advance, he wondered what kind of sorcery he had pulled there.

Stein smiled and gave a small laugh as he stood up out of his chair and rolled it to the side, he began to crank his head bolt again. "Let's see here, how should I begin my experiment," Artorias couldn't tell who he was talking to, himself, or everyone else. He looked now at Maka, she was in a stance, but it was loose, her face was one of worry as sweat dripped from her brow. Suddenly she charged with a war cry despite a shout of warning from Soul, she swung the scythe and Stein simply held out his hand, a spark of electricity zapped her away, before she could hit the ground Stein had her by her hair and had pulled her close.

Stein held Maka in place by the hair and she grabbed his arm trying to remove it, but it was futile, Artorias was not liking where it was going when he felt something ping off the back of his helmet like someone had thrown something at him. He turned and saw nothing when another stone pinged off his breastplate. Looking down, Artorias saw that Sid had shifted himself enough so as to allow him to be able to flick the pebbles at him and get his attention. Now that he had it, he shook his head a bit as though to tell him not to do anything.

However, before any decision could be made, Black Star began shouting again as he charged Stein. "You're gonna need a new pair of glasses Mister! Have you already forgotten I'm here?" he shouted.

Stein didn't really react at all, "Quite easily actually."

Black Star pounced a bit as he prepared his elbow for a strike, "You aren't the only one who can use soul waves to attack without a weapon!" he cried and Artorias perked a brow in interest as he saw Stein's eyes widen.

"What?" he said in surprise as Black Star planted a foot and shot his elbow forward.

"Black Star Big Wave!" he cried as he made contact and hit the doctor in the back, causing him to drop Maka, and after a split second a burst of electricity burst from the point of contact.

"Impressive," Artorias mumbled, it was a very powerful attack...however...Stein stood still for a moment with his head hunched as though he was completely unaffected.

He smiled and raised his head a bit, "A surprise from the wild boy, intriguing really," he said as Black Star backed away in shock and confusion.

"What the Hell?" Soul said, "the attack was useless."

"Y-you deflected my soul attack," Black Star said in disbelief, taking one more small step back as Stein turned and adjusted his lenses.

"Don't you remember when I checked your soul data when you first got here? When I did that I familiarized myself with your soul wavelengths so now I can adjust my wavelengths so that they match. When two wavelengths are the same they cancel each other out, so your attack is powerless," he finished before giving a small smirk. "You see in that moment you attacked, we temporarily bonded, it's like the connection between a meister and his weapon."

He now turned his body fully to face Black Star, "That was a fun experiment. Now…it's my turn," he said falling back a bit before lunging forward and covering the distance between him and the boy in a single stride, a smile on his face when he reached him. Stein held his hands out on either side of Black Star's head and bolts of electricity flew from his fingertips and began to shock his victim's head as he cried out in pain.

"Black Star!" Tsubaki cried out as Stein continued.

"Leave him alone!" Soul shouted from behind Stein but remained on the ground beside Maka.

After a moment longer, the electricity stopped and Black Star coughed up blood as he fell back onto the ground. They all cried out his name in unison except Artorias, who stood with his arms crossed, watching. He knew the boy was alright, but how one could use that much energy and not fry the boy's brain was beyond him, and so he watched.

Soul got up and stumbled over to Black Star's side and mumbled something as Stein moved away to the entrance to his property and began to crank his head-bolt with his other hand in his pocket.

Tsubaki had tears welled up in her eyes and her hands over her mouth and Artorias at her side when Sid spoke up. "Tsubaki, I was never the kind of man to run away from a fight, but you shouldn't fight a battle that cannot be won," he said with sympathy, "you should go."

She looked at him as if contemplating his advice when Artorias placed a hand on her shoulder. She shivered a bit at the cold of his metal gauntlet, but looked at it then him, he shook his head slowly and she looked at where Black Star lay before nodding slowly, it was just another test.

Now, Artorias kept his hand on Tsubaki's shoulder a moment longer while he watched Maka stand and stare at Stein while Soul ran over in front of her. Artorias removed his hand from Tsubaki's shoulder as Soul began shouting, "Damn you Stein you won't get away with this, I'll kill you!" he shouted with rage and backed up so he was beside Maka. "Right, let's go and get him," he said and looked at her, but she stood stock still with a look of horror on her face and her eyes wide as she looked at Stein.

Artorias did not catch what she muttered, but she fell to her knees with the same look on her face. "What's wrong?" Soul asked, Artorias looked at Stein as he stood waiting patiently before looking back at the girl, she was broken. It was similar to before when she blindly rushed Stein and was grabbed when he deflected her attack, she had a foe she knew not how to defeat and was now broken, her only hope now was Soul getting sense into her.

The doctor smiled, "The girl can see my soul," he commented as if just to inform them and took a drag on whatever he had in his mouth, which had surprisingly stayed there the entire time.

"He's too powerful, we can't beat him," Maka muttered and Artorias' face remained blank. Many times he had heard knights share similar thoughts on the battlefield, those knights however never did give up as they were reminded of what they fought for and Artorias was reminded of his fight with the beast of the Abyss. Artorias' head swan for a moment for some reason and pain wracked at it. He shook his head and ignored it, he had to remember that Maka was not a knight however and watched patiently.

As he watched Soul try to convince Maka to continue fighting, Artorias noticed their voices seemed to get further and further away and he lost his balance for a moment, taking a step back as his hands searched for something to grab but he managed to remain standing.

"Artorias? Are you alright?" he heard Tsubaki and looked at her, but all he saw was a creature that resembled that of one of the residents of Oolacile. His heart dropped for a moment when he realized his mind was being fooled, but by what he did not know.

He backed up a bit till he hit a wall and slid down it and placed his hands to his head and gave a hard shake. Suddenly his vision and hearing were normal and he saw Tsubaki with a worried look on her face and a hand on his shoulder. "I…I'm fine, ignore me, it's nothing, I have it under control," he said and she frowned.

She looked as though she was about to say something when Soul and Maka shouted, "Let's go, Soul Resonance!" Tsubaki looked at them and then him, he nodded and got himself up. Artorias was unbalanced for a moment, but Tsubaki caught him and he nodded and held up a hand to signify he was alright and took a deep breath and watched the rest of the battle unfold.

Maka and Soul used their Witch-Hunter technique and Stein stood ready with his arms out to the side. When Maka swung in an uppercut, Stein slapped his hands together on the blade and caught it, sliding a bit as he stopped and held the attack. Tsubaki had now walked over to check on Black Star and was holding his head and watching when Stein broke the soul-blade.

Maka flew back and Soul was ripped from her grip and flew through the air, when all was still Stein walked over and crouched in front of the heavily breathing girl. "Hm, you managed to remain conscious," he said and Soul, transforming into his human self, appeared with his body shielding Maka.

"Get away, I won't let you touch my meister," he hissed.

Stein held out his hand, "In that case I'll start with you," as the hand closed in, Soul closed his eyes and prepared himself when the doctor touched his head, however, nothing happened.

"Congratulations, you earned a passing grade, good job" he said quietly. Maka's eyes popped open wide with Soul's and they realized what he just said. "Your extra lessons are now complete," Soul looked up at him with a look of confusion. "You gave up your body to protect your meister, that's all you need to earn a pass from me," he said happily but still quietly.

Soul sat back a bit, "Sorry, maybe I wasn't clear the first time, huh?" he said with an even more confused look. Stein explained this was a simple plan conjured up by Lord Death and that the reason Artorias never assisted was so he could learn how the group worked together and/or how it was they tackled missions. After it all went down, Artorias couldn't help but chuckle a bit at the looks on the kids faces and their reactions, he may have been a knight but that didn't mean he didn't enjoy a good jest.

When all was sorted out, everyone returned to their homes as they would report to Lord Death tomorrow when they returned to the academy. Soul opened the door to the apartment and fell face-first on the floor, Artorias and Maka stepped over him.

"Come on Soul, go to your own bed, you'll drool all over the floor," she said very sleepily and she herself fell over the couch, her feet hanging over the back of it. Artorias opened the door to the guest room to find Blair sleeping with covers pulled high over her body. He walked over to where he laid the night before and took his sword off his back and sat down.

Despite not being tired as he slept the night before, his mind was clouded heavily with the thoughts that had transpired hours ago with his mind temporarily losing itself. He did not know what had happened, but he felt he had an explanation. It was only when he thought about the battle with the beast had it happened, though it had not been the first time he had thought of the creature, it was the first time something like that had happened. He thought of an explanation and figured he had found it.

Artorias grabbed his bottomless box and felt a darkness creep over his insides, it knew he had found it, that abyssal sorcery he had been struck with, it was eating away at him and began to cloud his mind. He quickly found a talisman and before too much damage could be done, he clutched the talisman to his chest and whispered a prayer and the small cloth glowed and instantly Artorias felt his mind become free.

He sighed and dropped the talisman into the bottomless box and closed it. He knew the miracle had worked, he had designed it himself to fight the Abyss, the talisman itself had his crest upon it just like his pendant which was now lost. However, he was not sure if the presence was gone, not once had he dealt with a creature like the one he had fought, the kinds of sorceries it had were foreign to him and were pure.

For now it would keep whatever was inside him at bay but he would have to search for something to cure him, fast.


	4. Chapter 4

The Abyssal Ch. 4

**AN: Alright so, because it's Thanksgiving (as of probably yesterday by the time I'm done with this) and I'm thankful for all the people who have been so kind as to follow, fav, review, (seriously, I've talked to most of you guys and you're all awesome ^.^) ** **and to make up for how long it's been, here have two chapters. Have a good day and enjoy!**

* * *

Artorias sat in the classroom the day after their encounter with Stein and after they had reported in to Lord Death. He was forced to take a seat right next to Tsubaki and Black Star and they were beside Soul and Maka as it appeared there were no real 'assigned' seats as some students were in different place. This included the spot he was at previously.

Soul seemed half awake and had his head propped up by his palm as Maka sat with her head on the desk, "I'm still worn out from last night," Soul muttered.

"I dreamt Stein was using me in one of his experiments," Maka mumbled in misery, so that explained the weird sounds coming from the living room.

And while Black Star had his feet kicked up on his desk and his hands behind his head, he too looked distressed as he suddenly woke up after having drifted off. "Tsubaki! Was Stein a bigger star than me yesterday?!" he cried out.

She looked at him, "Seriously?" she said somewhat sarcastically and Artorias shrugged when she glanced at him.

There was no teacher as Sid was, well…dead…-ish, and Soul voiced his thoughts on the matter, "Hey, they still haven't replaced Sid yet," he said drowsily, "maybe your dad will be our teacher again," he teased Maka.

She closed her eyes and shook her head, "Oh no, anyone but him," she whined.

Suddenly Artorias could hear a familiar rolling sound and in came Stein, his chair tripping over the lower part of the doorframe again and he spun into the room on his back, stopping with a book held up in front of him which he proceeded to open. "Alright class are we ready to get started?" he asked.

Artorias smirked and looked over at everyone beside him, Tsubaki had an awkward smile on her face, Black Star narrowed one eye as the other grew a bit in suspicion and Maka held her hand up to her cheeks. "This isn't funny," Soul muttered as though in pain, maybe not but his statement and face made Artorias give a small chuckle.

"For the first time…I actually wanted to see my father," Maka squeaked.

"That guy sure know how to get attention," Black Star muttered angrily as Tsubaki turned to Artorias, they seemed to be the only ones who didn't mind much, he shrugged and waited for Stein to continue.

* * *

After many weeks of observing the classroom, as he had no real reason to be there other than to learn the ways of this world, he had come to notice a change in Soul and Maka, they seemed to be becoming more…distant. Same with Tsubaki and Black Star while instead Black Star and Soul grew closer. One day in class, Artorias sat himself down beside Tsubaki, who was sitting only next to Maka, he was about to shift a seat over as maybe Black Star was late, but she placed a hand on his arm without looking at him, and he sat slowly. Looking over he saw Soul was missing beside Maka as well.

When it was pointed out by Stein, and Maka suggested they were just skipping, Artorias saw the sad look on Tsubaki's head and the way her head sank. It didn't seem to bother Maka at all, but their missing partners were certainly getting at Tsubaki. However…when Maka mumbled that with how often they hang out and do things to themselves, she was just being sarcastic and jesting, she mentioned they may as well be partners, something touched a nerve.

"What do you think?" Maka asked not even really looking at Tsubaki, just thinking aloud really.

Suddenly Tsubaki had her collar and was shaking her, "No that would never happen! Do you hear me!? Never, never, never, never, NEVER!" she shouted in her face. Stein looked up at them with a raised eyebrow and Artorias gestured he'd get it and stood, he placed one hand on Tsubaki's shoulder and one on Maka's and pushed them apart until Tsubaki's fingers were just grasping the air wickedly, trying to get at Maka. Who, was dazed and her eyes swirling in confusion and dizziness.

Stein cleared his throat loudly as he rolled across the room slowly, "As some of you may know," he began and Tsubaki stopped and looked at him, giving Artorias enough time to grab both her shoulders and sit her down. "A new student will be joining us today so I'd like most of you to keep yourselves relatively sane, at least for today. After all, it's all about the first impression, right Tsubaki?" he asked looking at her and she looked down a bit, then back at him, then down again. Artorias patted her shoulders and, to be safe, moved Maka to Soul's seat and sat between them.

Maka, in a state of half dazed, raised her hand once again, "Who's the new student?" she asked sheepishly.

"I'm glad you asked, your new classmate will be none other than Death the Kid, or just Kid. Before any of you ask, yes, he is Lord Death's only son, now I'll give you all a minute or two to spread rumors amongst yourselves while I prepare the bird." He looked at from his chair with a smile and it squawked in panic and began pecking at the bars.

Artorias turned to Tsubaki and she avoided eye contact, seemingly at all cost, something was definitely eating at her. He looked forward, "I believe there is a reason for you to suddenly thrash an old friend, one maybe involving your meister and her weapon?" he asked and looked at her as she glanced at him.

She sighed and looked like she was about to say something when Artorias heard something coming from outside, most everyone else did too. He looked at the people standing next to the window when someone spoke up, "Dr. Stein, it's Soul and Black Star, they're fighting someone outside," he said.

"Aaah," Artorias said turning slowly to Tsubaki as he put two and two together, Maka looked at them confused for a moment before standing.

"Excuse me, Dr. Stein, but I think there's a rule about two meisters dueling on campus," she said loudly so he could hear her. "It states that there has to be a professor there to witness it."

Stein seemed disappointed as he had his scalpels ready in both hands and the bird laid out on the table. "Well I suppose it can't be helped," he placed the scalpels in the table and put his hands in his pockets. "I guess we'll have to postpone the dissection for later and as Soul and Black Star's partners, Maka and Tsubaki please come with me," he said not pausing at all in his sentence as he climbed onto his chair and began to roll away, "Oh yes and you may join us Artorias," he said and all three got up and followed, "Everyone else, study something."

* * *

Artorias opened the door to outside and allowed everyone out before himself, "And who said chivalry was dead," Stein commented as he rolled past. When they saw a boy in black in front of Black Star and Soul on the ground across from him, they stopped. "Oh my, they probably should have picked a different opponent," he said as he looked on.

Artorias sized up the boy in the middle, he was a small distance out but he could make out the details fine. He had a black suit of some sort on and had three white stripes on one side of his black hair as well as two silver objects in his hand Artorias had never seen before.

"Dr. Stein, is that the boy?" Maka asked, "The one with the guns," is that what they were? "is he the one everyone's been talking about so much?"

"Yep," he said simply, "That's Lord Death's son, Death the Kid. It was his own decision to attend the academy, but he won't be a normal student, his abilities are far greater than anyone else's here."

Artorias saw Tsubaki hang her head after a moment, Maka saw it too and glanced up at him, he nodded. "Tsubaki?" she asked and the girl jumped a little and opened her eyes and looked at her friend. "Is something wrong?"

She turned from Artorias, "Oh no it's nothing," she said quietly in her normal, generally happy voice.

Stein called Maka over to her surprise and explained what he needed her to do, which was t watch Kid's wavelengths and observe the way they fought. She watched carefully as Soul and Black Star dodged purple shots coming from the objects in the boys hands, Artorias looked on in interest, so this is what a gun did? Fire pieces of the soul like that of the soul sorceries back in Lordran?

She explained what she saw, as well as discuss how well they fought and worked together with Stein. "You can't even compare them to our two idiots out there," she commented with an odd look on her face, one of embarrassment if Artorias was looking at it correctly.

Suddenly Black Star jumped over next to Soul, who was partially in scythe form, his left arm a giant blade. "Let's hurry it up and finish this guy off," Black Star said.

Soul smiled, "I think it's about time."

Kid raised an eyebrow in confusion, "For what?" he asked quickly and plainly.

"You should quake with fear at your impending death," Artorias placed one elbow in the palm of his hand as his other hand gripped the bridge of his nose.

"We've been down this path before," he mumbled and no one seemed to disagree.

"When you say that is just makes me want to laugh," Kid taunted.

"You won't be laughing when you taste our power of friendship," Black Star said. What went from two fingers pinching the bridge of his nose went to Artorias' hand grasping his temples and him slowly shaking his head in pity. If this had been a knight under his command he'd have fed him to the wretches in Blighttown, that foul swamp.

Kid almost sounded threatened by the 'power' they kept going on about, not that he could blame him necessarily, they weren't bad fighters and he didn't necessarily know about all the cards they had up their sleeves.

"Alright!" Soul shouted and did a pose, "Transformation!" he cried and glowed and took to the air. Artorias was unimpressed but Kid seemed to be absorbed by the sight. When Soul was coming back down, Black Star had his hands raised up high and instead of catching Soul, the scythe cut his hair into two parts, and then slowly slid threw it and clanged to the floor. Black Star stood still for a about three seconds before screaming out in pain as blood shot from his head like a geyser, completely baffling Artorias, so many things in this world he did not understand.

He closed his…hair…and proceeded to try and pick up soul to only look like an fool as he strained to lift him off the ground, his…hair wound…spouting blood again. Maka and Tsubaki seemed completely stunned with embarrassment watching the two of them.

"Soul and Black Star are definitely lacking in the compatible wavelength department," Maka commented with awkwardness bordering on her tone.

Black Star began to grind his teeth and sparks flew from his hand and Soul's head popped out of the black and red blade to spit out a lot of blood. "What are you doing hitting me with a soul wavelength you idiot, that hurts!" he shouted in rage as Artorias found himself just unable to comprehend what he was seeing. Where the hell did logic suddenly go, how does a human being have that much blood?

Tsubaki's jaw had dropped watching as Artorias calmed down and placed a hand on the poor girls shoulder and patted it in pity. "Those two morons can't sense each others wavelengths at all," Maka continued with about the same expression as before on her face.

Soul had turned away from Black Star, "Black Star, we're through," he said sadly.

"What are you saying Soul?" Black Star asked.

"If we try to stay together like this I'll only end up hating you. It's for the best."

Artorias closed his eyes and shook his head as he felt Tsubaki choke up in what he knew was confusion and awkwardness as everyone muttered a consensus, "Huh?"

"Hey," Kid said with his guns raised, "can I shoot them now?" Artorias felt like speaking out, but remained silent.

Artorias grabbed his sword off his back with his free hand and examined it, thankful to the Lords that it wasn't a person as Black Star and Soul continued on with their moment before running at each other slowly and saying each others names.

"They need professional help," Maka said as the two hugged each other.

Suddenly they were both blown back as they were hit in the heads, there was silence as Kid stood still, "Oops," he said sounding genuine, "Sorry…my fingers slipped."

And after several minutes of failed attacks and one big explosion later, Soul and Black Star lay dazed in a crater, one could say, caused by their own stupidity. Artorias let Tsubaki's shoulder go as she ran forward to check on Black Star, she still cared about him despite everything, which is a great aspect to have in a partner. In all seriousness, Artorias didn't quite feel Black Star deserved someone with Tsubaki's forgiveness and understanding, but everyone deserves a chance he guessed. As for Soul and Maka, they had a very intriguing friendship, something even as big as this would probably hardly affect anything.

All of a sudden, Kid just spontaneously coughed up blood and flew backwards, his guns appearing as two girls leaning over on either side of him when he lay still. One was smaller with short blond hair while the other was taller with long light brown hair, the blond laughing hysterically. "Oh great," the tall one said as everyone looked on in confusion, "here we go again."

"What happened?" Stein asked as he rolled up beside them.

The tall one looked at him and smirked awkwardly, "Oh nothing, it's just a little cut," she said.

Maka, close behind Stein, predicted the theory as to why Kid spontaneously spit up blood and fell over, that being that his bangs got cut in the fight, and the symmetry was off.

"Yeah, that means we've won and I, Black Star, have defeated the Reaper. I knew it!" he leaned back with crossed arms and began to laugh victoriously. "Who's going to be talking about this guy now?" Tsubaki frowned and looked at Artorias, he nodded at her and she looked up at him.

"Maybe we should make sure you're alright," she said quietly.

He took in a deep breath, "Of course I'm alright, I beat death today, I'm awesome!" Artorias looked at the three new students, his face masked by the darkness of his hood as always, which apparently made the taller girl uncomfortable for a moment.

She cleared her throat however and glanced at Kid before looking back at him, "Are you two both professors here?" she asked pointing between Artorias and Stein.

Stein spoke up, "Yes, I'm a new addition to the staff here, and Artorias here," he said waving a hand to him, "is here just simply to observe and see how we do things around here?"

She leaned her head to one side with a slightly confused look, "So, are you a student then?" she asked picking up Kid. Artorias glanced back over to where Soul and Maka were and her helping him up with smiles on both their faces, he smirked beneath his hood, just as he suspected.

"Not quite," he said at last as she lifted Kid onto her back, the blond girl poking him in the face and giggling every time she did.

"Wassup, wassup, waaassup?" Lord Death asked suddenly appearing. Everyone greeted him happily, save Kid, who was unconscious, and Artorias, who gave a curt nod. "So, I heard my son had an eventful first day at school," he said looking at Kid on the taller girls back. "He can go a bit overboard sometimes, I hope no one's hurt too badly," he said. Artorias gave a small snort, Black Star alone seemed to have bled out two gallons and he seemed perfectly fine, he doubted anyone couldn't get _too_ hurt despite anyone's best effort.

When Death and his son with his two weapons walked away, Stein spun his chair around, "Alright everyone, let's get back to class," he said and began rolling away with Black Star, Tsubaki, Soul, and Artorias in tow, Maka just staring at Death as he moved away. Soul called her and she snapped out of her daze and continued on with them and they returned to the classroom. To Stein's amazement and sadness, the bird had broken free and gotten away.

* * *

A couple days later Maka, Soul, and Artorias were called to the Death room. "Think you'll be able to help us this time?" Soul asked glancing over his shoulder at Artorias.

He shrugged, "It is not entirely my decision, but why I would not would be beyond me." Soul seemed satisfied with that answer and nodded his head slowly as they walked.

They walked into the middle of the room to see Death standing there, "Howdy, howdy, how's it going?" he asked cheerfully.

"We're fine, thank you for asking," Maka replied.

"Good, good, well I suppose you would like to know why I called you here today," without giving them time to respond, he continued. "There have been many people suddenly reported going missing in Rome, Italy-," he didn't get to finish his sentence.

"We're going to Italy?" Soul asked in amazement, "You mean where pasta originated, the homeland of pizza, the-," and he too was cut off as Death chopped him with one of his giant white hands.

"Yes, that Italy," he said and cleared his throat, "As I was saying before getting interrupted, there has been a spike in reported missing persons recently in Rome and I would like to send you three in to investigate it. I'm hoping that maybe we can also see how _you _work my dear Artorias," he said and the knight nodded.

"I'll be sure to assist as best I can," he replied kindly.

"Good, good, is there anything else you need to know?"

Maka nodded, "Do we have any idea who it might be, at least any suspects?"

"Why yes, one suspect you should look for is a murderer by the name of Sansa Chei," he informed them as Soul stood up shakily, one hand clutching his head. "Anything else?" he asked and the three of them looked amongst themselves and shook their heads. "Alrighty then, good luck and I hope to see you all again soon. Bye," he said waving to them as they walked out.

* * *

When they reached the city Soul's eyes seemed to brighten and his mouth began to drool slightly, "We're in Rome!" he said happily. "Maybe we can stop by a pasta joint, or a pizzeria, as the saying goes, 'when in Rome, eat lots of pasta'." Maka raised a book above her head and slammed it into Soul's head similarly to how Death did the other day.

"You idiot, we're here for an extracurricular assignment, not to stuff our faces!" she said angrily.

"Alright, alright," Soul said rubbing his head, "I get it, you don't need to scramble my brains."

Artorias decided to step in, "Do we know where to begin our search?" he asked looking around the city, it was impressive, not nearly as breathtaking as Anor Londo, but impressive.

"Well we're looking for a murder by the name of Sansa Chei aren't we?" Soul said.

"So you were paying attention," Maka said with sarcastic amazement.

"He'll probably lay low until after dark won't he, so maybe…"

"Soul, we're not here for sight-seeing," Maka said shaking her head.

"Alright," he said disappointed as they continued their walk. As useful as he may be, Artorias was something of a liability when it came to travel. They had been forced to take a train, followed by a boat because they didn't think they'd let a eight-and-a-half foot tall knight onto a plane, whatever that was, and couldn't travel much by anything that wasn't by foot as he was too tall for a car and three people won't fit on a bike.

After a while they found themselves in a good area to start looking, "Alright, this is better," Maka said looking around a bit, "let's see, where can we go to find some information?" she thought aloud.

As they walked, Soul bumped into a passing man, his elbow barely touching the other man, "Oh, sorry," Soul said apologetically and kept walking.

However, the other man wouldn't have that, "Hey," he said, "hold it punk," he grabbed Soul by the collar and pulled him closer.

He didn't seem to care too much, "Problem?" he asked normally.

"You bet there is," the man said angrily, "I got a problem with any punk who runs into me like that. Who do you think you're messing with?" he seemed to be overreacting quite a bit to a small nudge on the arm, Artorias took a step forward. "Maybe you'd like me to show ya huh?" Maka held out an arm to stop him without looking away from the sight, she didn't seem to mind what was happening much. He frowned and crossed his arms and watched.

"Maybe if you talked more and spit less, maybe I'd be able to understand you," Soul said back with hostility, Maka sighed.

Suddenly more people began showing up beside the guy, "Heh, what'd the small fry say," said one. "You got a problem understanding, maybe we can explain it better to you," she another cracking his knuckles as even more people showed up, about twelve in total, surrounding the group.

Artorias glanced down at Maka, but she stood still, unchanged, "Soul, quit messing around with these guys, we got work to do," she said and began walking.

"Yeah, fine by me," Soul said still in the mans grasp.

"I don't thinks so you're not going anywhere!" the man said raising Soul's feet off the ground. "If you think you can cross the Mamaratsi and get away with it, you must be stupider than you look." Artorias shook his head and followed Maka, "We'll show you what happens to punks!" He squeezed past some of the guys, who parted for him more than anything, and heard Soul sigh, followed by several grunts and bangs, Soul was soon walking by Artorias' side with Maka leading.

"Now then, let's get back to what we were doing," she said and led them around until nightfall. She looked up at the roof of a building, "Soul," she said with narrow eyes.

"Got it," he said and transformed into a scythe.

Artorias looked at her as she grabbed Soul and rested him on her shoulder, she pointed to the roof, "He's up there," she said.

Artorias bent down low and cupped his hands, she placed a foot there and a hand on his shoulder, he did two small lifts before giving her a toss all the way up to the roof. He looked around and found a place to climb, he ran toward the wall, jumped, caught a windowsill on the second story, and tossed himself up to the roof. When he landed, Maka did as well and turned as Soul transformed again, a small red orb slowly floating to the ground.

So this was a Kishin Soul, Artorias thought as Soul walked up to it and grabbed it, "That's all the souls for this assignment right?" Maka asked.

"Yeah, and eating this Kishin Soul will be better than all you can eat pasta," he said and opened his mouth extremely wide and swallowed it whole.

Maka watched him with interest, "Do souls taste good?" she asked, "you always seem to like them."

He shrugged, "Ya, they're pretty good, they don't really have a particular flavor though, it's just the way they feel going down is all, they have an interesting texture," he said walking toward them.

"Hm," Maka said, "so how do you think Black Star and Tsubaki are doing? I wonder if they're having any more luck than us collecting souls than usual."

"I doubt it," Soul said as Artorias kept silent, "they're professional losers when it comes to soul collecting."

Artorias frowned behind his hood, "Not exactly great talk towards your friends and peers," he said not approving of the way he spoke about those he worked with. With the expression on Maka's face, she did as well.

Soul shrugged, "Black Star's energy isn't spent towards soul collecting, he's more interested in pumping up his own ego and Tsubaki is just caught in the middle of that," he said and while Artorias agreed, it did not mean he still approved. Maka straightened up suddenly and closed her hands into fists as she stared off into the distance at something. Artorias looked at her while Soul didn't seem to notice, "Anyway, let's go," he said and began walking.

"Hey Soul, hold on," Maka said still staring off into the distance.

"Why, what's wrong?" he asked normally.

Suddenly she spun, Artorias stepped to the side, out her line of sight and looked at the large church she turned to, "That building," she said.

"I think I recall someone saying there was to be no sight-seeing," Soul said obviously not hearing the seriousness in her tone, "Oh that was you."

"It's not that," she said quietly, "it's something else. I sense something, a group of souls all round up together over there." Her eyes narrowed, "It's also noisy," she closed her eyes, "need to concentrate," she mumbled.

After a moment, she continued, "In that building, I sense a weapon and a meister, and fifty or so souls surrounding them," her voice growing quiet.

Artorias looked at the church carefully as Soul walked up beside her, "Wow, you can tell all that from over here?" he asked.

"Yeah, it surprised me too," she said quietly. "It seems like those guys in there are the ones from this afternoon," she said and Soul turned away.

"Oh those idiots again, why do we care what happens to them?" Artorias frowned at that statement.

"I don't like them any more than you do, but they're still human. They're punks sure, but it's not like their souls have become Kishin eggs," Maka said, Artorias still silent as he watched the building.

"Let's just forget about them Maka, it's Saturday night after all, maybe they just got a little fever going or something," he said.

"No Soul," Maka said angrily, "this is no time for jokes, we're representatives of the academy. If something bad happens, it'll be too late," she said as the sound of bells reached Artorias' ears.

"Maybe it already is," Artorias muttered.

"What?" Soul and Maka asked as he took off across the rooftops.

"Artorias, wait!" Maka shouted behind him, he knew when something bad had happened, it was a sixth sense of his. What worried him the most however, was said sense only ever kicked in when something involving Abyss happened and it drove him to act fast. He jumped off the roof into a square in front of the church and ran around a pillar in the middle of it, Maka and Soul close behind him. He ran up to the church and stopped, Maka doing the same beside him.

"No, that's not possible, it couldn't have happened that quickly," she said with slight fear.

"Alright you guys need to slow down, I can't keep up with you," Soul said having no idea what she was talking about.

Only when the bell stopped ringing did Maka speak up again, "All gone," she said quietly.

"What the bell?" Soul asked confused as Maka was looking up.

"No," Artorias said walking toward the large doors of the church and began to push.

"The humans, they're all gone, there's nothing but the weapon and the meister," Maka said and when Artorias opened the doors a great gust of wind blew out of it, waving his plume and small cape and Maka's coat.

Inside was nothing but a thin boy with pink hair and a tight black unitard that went down to his ankles and he held one arm with his other hand. "You see," he said quietly before turning to them, "they only open one way, they only open inward," he said.

Maka and Soul walked up beside Artorias, "What the Hell?" Soul said aloud, "it's just him, what happened to his weapon partner?"

"There's no way," Maka said in quiet amazement. Artorias narrowed his eyes as he heard the boy mumble to himself, "I'm reading both a weapon and a meister in front of us. Which means…that meister standing right there, he has a weapon inside his body." After a moment she held out her hand, "Soul, weapon form," she said quietly, and while confused, he complied.

"So you're saying he has a weapon _inside_ of him?" Soul asked, Artorias stood still with a blank face beneath his hood.

"Yes, and it's coming out," she said and after a moment the boy screamed and held his head. Artorias slowly reached back and withdrew his sword from his back and held it ready at his side, the tip of it touching the marble floor. They boy hunched forward and his back began to bulge, screaming all the while as the growth burst and a black form began to grow out of the black sludge coming off the boys back.

Artorias knew an Abyssal sorcery when he saw one, though he had not seen it in a form like this before. The black mass formed a large muscular chest, then arms and finally a head, which, when it ready, turned and looked at them. It then looked down at the boy and bumped his head with one of his giant fists.

"That hurts me," the boy said slightly annoyed, the creature did it again and then began rubbing its knuckles against the boys head. "Ow, Ragnarok stop," the boy said, "it hurts it hurts it hurts," he said and the creature began to mess with him. Artorias watched on with narrow eyes, the boy didn't have control of the sorcery and it did what it wished with him, just like every other fool he had seen try something similar.

"Stop it now! I've had enough already!" the boy yelled and his growth backed off.

"Now, now Crona, you're so scary when you're stressed out like this," it said holding its arms up.

"Okay, this is getting weird," Maka said beside Artorias. She regained her posture, "You should know the hunting of human souls is forbidden, are you students? I haven't seen you at the academy."

"Maka," Artorias whispered, attempting to inform her of what they were dealing with, never taking his eyes off the boy.

"The what?" he asked quietly, "What academy?" the thing slapped his hands to the boys cheeks and began moving them in a swirling motion. "She said to feed on human souls," the thing changed its grip to the boys chin and eyebrows, he didn't seem to care. "I don't see what's wrong with it if she said it was okay." After a moment of Maka staring at him intently, his cheeks began o blush, "I've never been really good at talking to girls, it makes me nervous," he said.

The thing lowered its head beside the boys, "Never mind that," it said in a deep, groggy voice, "her soul is tasty, and the big ones too."

Artorias reached back into his bottomless box and slowly took out his talisman, strapping it onto his belt in case he needed it. "It's forbidden for a meister and their weapon to hunt human souls for any reason," Maka persisted, "We hunt only the souls of those who become Kishin eggs." She raised Soul to the side, "It's my duty to stop you and you will not hunt any more humans, you hear me!" she said loudly and with authority.

The thing poked the boys head, "Let's get her Crona," it said, the boy did nothing and it glanced at him before turning back into a shapeless form above the boys head. The boy, Crona, without looking up, reached into the shapeless form and withdrew a silver handle. The black cloud of his head formed together on the handle and formed into a black sword.

Maka tensed, "It turned into a weapon, a sword," Artorias almost smirked, good, his type of combat. The boy still had the sword up, but suddenly he swung it around deftly and charged them, it was low and kicked up sparks and dirt on the ground.

"He's going to strike from below," Soul said as Maka was clearly the boys target. Artorias hopped aside and ran around the boy as Maka slammed Soul's blade into the ground and stopped the attack dead.

Artorias closed in but before he could attack, Maka slapped the boy, "Stop this!" she said.

"Are you going to start poking at me too?" he asked and Maka hit him back and used Soul to swing around above the boy and slam his head into the ground with her knees. Artorias backed up and remembered what he had learned, they are used to attacking one at a time, not working as a team, he'd have to wait until she was done and look for an opening.

She raised Soul above her head as she jumped off the boy and swung, however, the blade hit the boys arm and stopped dead. "No, not with a stroke like that," the boy said as though talking to someone and three drops of black blood hit the ground.

"Black…black blood?" Maka said quietly in confusion.

The boy leaned forward so his face was beside hers, "Yes, my blood is black," he said and she gasped and jumped away.

Maka told Soul she thought the boys blood was a weapon, explaining why the attack didn't work. "Well how do you suppose we go about beating him then?" Soul asked.

Artorias walked slowly between Maka and the boy, "You wanted me to do something this assignment, let me handle this," he said.

"But you won't…" Maka began when Artorias looked at her.

"Trust me when I say this is my field of expertise," he said and she frowned before nodding and backing away. He turned again to the boy and held his blade in front of him, "Boy," he said deeply, "you have dabbled in an art that will only lead to your own destruction. This day, you die," he said.

"He's big, I don't know how to deal with this," the boy said, "those were bullies though, he's different." Artorias was able to walk up to the boy, he grabbed him by the throat and lifted him up before head-butting him away. Dazed, the boy shook his head and raised his sword, as if it had a mind of its own, it began swinging itself and Artorias effortlessly blocked its attacks.

The boy made a thrust and Artorias grabbed the boys arm and pushed it away while thrusting his own sword forward, the boy spun away at the last moment, but the sword cut the boys side.

He backed away, clutching his side as black blood seeped out of it, "That…that hurt," he said in pain, tears almost welling up in his eyes.

"How…" Artorias heard Maka behind him, Artorias quickly took out his talisman and held it out in front of him, he whispered a word and a large circle of light appeared in the shape of his crest. He whispered another word and with a loud boom, the circle exploded outward and sent the boy flying across the church. Artorias lowered his hand slowly, it must have been Abyssal sorceries, there was no doubt about it now. His sword, made to combat creatures of the Abyss, had cut the boy where no other weapon could, and the miracle he had just cast, had he tried it on Maka and Soul would have done nothing.

The boy got up and almost seemed to be smiling, that caused Artorias concern and he narrowed his eyes. The boy raised the sword up, it looked like it had lips and a mouth, "Screaming Resonance," the boy said happily. The church was filled with a sonic screaming and Artorias almost didn't notice an attack coming at him, he swatted the sorcery aside and grabbed the boys arm as he tried to bring it down on him. He swung his body and kicked the boy into the left-hand wall of the church. But suddenly the boy was going after Maka and Soul.

"Look out!" he shouted and Maka quickly raised Soul and blocked the attack, but the sword began to scream again and Artorias saw a spurt of blood come from the scythe. It was vibrating so quickly it was cutting through Soul, "Stop it!" Maka shouted and kicked the boy away, right into Artorias. He grabbed the boy and rammed his sword right through the boys back and out his stomach, he screamed in pain. Artorias swung his sword to the side and threw the boy away, to his surprise though, the boy stood, and the hole in his abdomen closed.

The blade screamed again and Artorias moved to Maka's side, the boy could heal, and his blade was deadly, he was mostly likely the only one who could take the boy on. The began to swing his blade before he got to them and suddenly charged with a thrust, Artorias quickly batted the boys arm down with his left hand and slapped him away with the flat of his blade, Maka swinging around Artorias using Soul and kicked the boy away. He spun but when he came back around he began thrusting repeatedly, so fast that if Artorias tried again to bat the arm away he could hit the blade and cut himself, they were forced to back up to avoid being hit.

The boys eyes had shown Artorias the boys mind was no longer his own or that he was insane as he laughed and swung low, Maka stumbled back and hit the doors of the church, and Artorias dodged to the side and hit a pillar, they had been cornered.

She began beating on the door with her back but it wouldn't budge, "Open up," she said desperately.

The boy raised the sword, it screamed and began to glow steadily, "You should pay attention to the things other people say," he said quietly. "The doors here only open one way, they only open inward," he said.

"Maka block the attack!" Soul shouted.

"Soul if I guard you'll die!" she replied hysterical.

Artorias was about to attack the boy when he swung the blade downward, and hit Soul. He had quickly transformed and taken the swing for Maka, blood poured from the diagonal wound. As Artorias tackled the boy, slammed his face with the pommel of his sword and jumped on top of the boy and jumped back off of him, sliding the boy across the ground.

"Soul!" Maka shouted

Artorias quickly spun and saw Maka holding Soul, "Move!" he demanded and she moved aside as he grabbed the two rings that were the door handles and threw the doors open. "Go now!" he shouted and was slammed into a nearby pillar as a sound wave slammed into him. The doors slammed closed again by the sound wave and Artorias fell to the ground as the boy moved in on Maka and Soul.

Artorias had only just gotten control of his senses again when he saw the boy bringing the sword over his head, ready to strike. He began to move, but he'd be too slow, suddenly there was a crack.

"How did that get there?" the boy asked as a large, curved, black blade was coming through the door and going through the boy's abdomen. The door began to crack and a white-shoed foot burst through the door and sent the boy flying across the church floor.

Stein lowered his foot as he stepped into the church, "Dr. Stein!" Maka said in surprise. Maka was muttering something to herself when the blade transformed into her father, the man who had been their teacher the first day Artorias was there. Artorias stood and walked over beside the man as Stein crouched beside Soul and took his white coat off and set it over the boy's chest.

"Professor Stein is Soul alright?" she asked as her father looked back.

"It's serious, if we don't get him back soon he might not make it," Maka's father's face took on that of surprise and Artorias raised a brow as he glanced at him.

He quickly regained his posture and looked at Crona as Artorias stood at the ready, "I gotta say, that was an easier fight than I expected."

Artorias scoffed as the boy stood, holding his shoulder with one hand, "I do not see him finished, nor have you been fighting him," he said and the man looked at him, "Till then do not add your opinion," he said and the man eyed him strangely.

The thing began to thrash Crona's head around looking for a 'thank you' for saving his life. They all watched him strangely when Maka spoke up, "Professor Stein," she said, he looked at her, "Who are those two…or what are they?" she asked. "I've never seen anything like this."

"That," Stein said, "is the reason the academy was created," Artorias perked an ear as he continued watching the boy, who now stood still hardly standing straight.

"The reason the academy was created?" she repeated, "So…is he a Kishin?"

"Exactly," Stein said after a moment before his eyes narrowed, "but not yet, he's only one step away from one." He stood with a smile, "Alright then, let's take care of this shall we?" he said and Maka's father smiled.

"Yeah," he said and glowed before glowing and turning into a scythe.

"Artorias," Stein said, he looked over his shoulder as Stein caught the scythe and spun it deftly, "Get Soul and Maka to a safe distance while we take care of this," he said and Artorias nodded and picked up Soul.

"Come," he said and Maka looked up and him and hesitated, glancing at Stein as the doctor stood ready for Crona's next attack. "Maka," he said urgently and she nodded before standing and following him outside. After several minutes Crona came flying out of the church, he stood shakily not far from where Artorias had hid Maka and Soul.

Stein came out of the church and was attacked by the floating blood particles that had come off the boy, Artorias' eyes narrowed, so he could control even blood droplets. Stein began swinging the scythe around him, getting all the particles together, they began to grow spikes and point at him when he slammed the scythe into the ground and caused a smoke-cloud.

When it had cleared, only the scythe remained, standing by itself, unannounced to the boy and his black blood, Stein was above them and when they did notice, he slammed the boy in the head with his foot. Crona stood dazed as his blood creature tried to get him to snap out of his state when Stein hit them with one of his direct soul attacks and sent the boy flying.

The blood droplets fell to the ground and the blood creature disappeared, Artorias walked up to where the boy lay still. The boy's hand twitched and Artorias jumped back as he screamed, black electricity flying from his mouth, soon followed by him being supported by spikes that kept popping out of his body and going back in. He felt a power behind him and turned and looked up at where Stein and Maka were looking, a woman on a broom sat watching patiently.

Arrows began swirling around her and she began waving her arms, "Crona is such a weakling, I'll have to punish him later," she said from high above, Artorias prepared his talisman and sword for anything. "Won't that be fun," he heard her say wickedly with a hiss, "Vector arrows!" she shouted and stopped moving her arms, the black arrows around her began flying at them at all different angles. Artorias began whispering a prayer and Stein spun his scythe at incredible speed.

Artorias raised his talisman and squeezed it, a dome of light surrounded him temporarily and every arrow that touched it began to burn away. Stein's scythe began to glow and he shouted "Witchhunter!" the same move Maka had used in the graveyard against Sid. Artorias turned and saw a blue light destroy all the arrows, glancing up after his dome had disappeared and he saw the witch smile and her snake tattoos flew through the air. It turned into a giant serpent and picked Crona up in its jaws gently and lifted him up to where the witch was. She just kept smiling as she suddenly sped off.

* * *

**AN: Alright, well, I'm not quite sure how well these will turn up, but I hope you guys review and tell me how I'm doing. I hope you guys enjoy and have a good day. **


	5. Chapter 5

The Abyssal Ch. 5

Artorias was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and one foot also against the wall with Maka on the floor beside him as they waited outside the nurse's office. After a while longer the door opened and Artorias glanced over and saw Stein step out and wipe his hands with a white handkerchief.

Maka looked up as the doctor walked out, "Professor Stein?" she asked hoping for good news.

"Ah, Maka. Have you been waiting out here this entire time?" he asked also giving Artorias a glance, the knight nodded. "Why don't you take a nap or eat or something, you must surely be tired by now," he said.

"I need to know how Soul is," she said desperately.

Stein looked at her for a moment and sighed, he smiled and held up two fingers, "The operation was a complete success. Once he rests up a bit he'll be as good as new."

Maka smiled and Artorias saw the tension fall away from her shoulders, "He's okay," she said quietly as though to reassure herself. She took one of Stein's hands, "Thank you so much Professor," she said and looked into the nurse's office and paused. "Um…would it be alright if I went in to check on him now?" she asked.

Stein had a small smile on his face, "Sure, that'll be fine," he said and Maka thanked him one last time before running in.

When he was sure she was out of earshot, Artorias pushed off the wall and lowered his arms and walked toward the door, pausing next to Stein as he lowered his head to walk in. "You put on a good fake smile," he said quietly and walked in, taking care not to hit his head.

He walked in to see Maka next to and at the end of Soul's bed, he walked up to her as he saw her choking up and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. Her head fell and she brought her hands to her chest, the first of her tears began to fall, "He did it all for me," she choked out. Artorias patted her shoulder gently as he looked at the boy, the stitches just barely visible on the boys shoulder as his shirt did not cover all of it. He did not know what to say truth be told, he had only stayed with them a short time and had often seen friends injured in battle, but he always knew they would come out strong…or die trying. However the case was not that serious but Maka obviously felt guilt over the matter.

"Just you wait," Maka said quietly, "I'll make you as strong as I can Soul, I promise I will."

As she finished the door came flying in and Artorias, surprised, instinctually pulled his sword off his back and held it ready to see Black Star run in, Tsubaki behind him trying to get him to calm down.

"Soul, are you okay!" he shouted and looked at Soul's prone form as Tsubaki caught up with him. Suddenly he was on the bed bashing the boys head up and down as he thrashed Soul's shoulders, "It's going to be alright, Black Star is here for you now!" While Artorias knew there was no real threat, he was hesitant to put his sword away as he wanted to smack the boy away with it as Black Star now pried Soul's eyelids open. "Open your eyes!" he cried as now he just thrashed Soul around in every one-which direction, "One look at my handsome face and you'll be cure for sure!"

Maka seemed extremely shocked, "Black Star NOOO!" she shouted at the top of her lungs and suddenly smacked him into the other bed with a book that Artorias had no idea how she suddenly got. Tsubaki had walked up beside Artorias and looked pretty shocked when Black Star suddenly ended up dazed in the other bed.

"Sorry about that Maka," she said apologetically as she rubbed the back of her neck and smiled awkwardly. After a moment though, she looked at Maka's face, "Maka?" she asked quietly and Artorias too leaned forward a bit to look at the girls sad face.

Tsubaki and Artorias shared a small glance as they saw a tear running down the girls face, but she quickly wiped it away and stood straight with a smile. Tsubaki looked up and away with a smile as well seeing her friend coming out strong and to pretend she didn't see her tears. He looked among all four of the teenagers in the room, they all shared an interesting relationship with one another, one that reminded Artorias of his friendship with the other three knights of Gwyn. They had know each other long and while they knew their jobs were serious, they still all enjoyed each others company. Artorias smiled, the rare occasions that all four knights were together were often great times they could all come together and tell of their tales over a cup of ale and laugh at the stories and jests that were told.

Yes, he thought as he glanced at Maka, they all share close bonds, some closer than others and all enjoy one another's company despite those…moments, he thought glancing at Black Star. Friendship was a funny thing at times indeed. Tsubaki had glanced at Maka again out of the corner of her eye, seeing she was okay, her smile became more relaxed as she gave a relaxed even more seeing her friend not in obvious pain.

Artorias heard footsteps and looked at the doorway, "Oh my, what happened to the door?" a woman in somewhat similar attire as Dr. Stein, minus the stitches, with…braided hair that fell on her chest. Artorias narrowed his eyes in suspicion as the nurse walked forward, "It seems things have been pretty lively in here," she said.

"Dr. Medusa," Maka said in slight surprise, Artorias glanced at her with a small turn of his head before glance back at the nurse. Artorias remembered the other night, while he had only barely saw what the witch looked like the other night with how high she was, he remembered her great grin and the way her light brown hair was braided over her chest. And he was fairly certain not many people would walk around with that kind of hair style nor was it coincidence it was the same color.

He would hide his suspicion though and see what is to happen in the future, should anything strange happen to Soul or anyone else particularly in the nurses office, he would know who to suspect first. Maka and Tsubaki gave a small bow, "Good afternoon," they said in unison, they obviously had great respect for the woman. Artorias stood straight and crossed his arms, giving a small nod of acknowledgement.

Black Star even sat up spontaneously, "Hey Doc," he said, "have you come to check up on how Soul's doing?"

She had a small kind smile on her face, "Well, um, miss Maka," she said.

"Yes?" she asked, "What is it?" she almost seemed to dread what she might hear next.

Dr. Medusa gave an awkward smile with closed eyes as she pointed to her leg, "Can you help me out and get your father?" she asked and Maka seemed confused for a moment, "I can't seem to get him off my leg."

Artorias raised a brow and leaned forward a bit with Maka and Tsubaki and sure enough, Maka's father was stroking the nurses leg with hearts in eyes…quite literally to Artorias' shock. Maka seemed fairly annoyed and agitated when she saw the sight and withdrew her book again. After she had dealt with her father, who now laid in one of the medical beds half conscious, she held the book up maliciously as if daring him to get up again.

Dr. Medusa seemed thankful, "Soul had a difficult lesson, didn't he?" she asked going back to her seemingly normal, kind nature, "He was in pretty bad shape."

Maka hung her head and was quiet, "Yes, I'm sorry," she said quietly, "It's all my fault that he was hurt." Artorias frowned a little, he understood why she would blame herself, but that she didn't blame him in the slightest for not being faster also showed a lot about her leadership personality as well as her forgiveness and how easily she could be guilted. While each had it's pros and cons, it was interesting to see such traits so developed at such a young age, it reminded Artorias of Ornstein a bit.

The nurse took a step toward Maka and slowly placed her hands on both the girl's shoulders, "But he's okay now," she said reassuringly, "and this will only make _you_ stronger Maka," she said and gave and extra little smile. Artorias had to admit, while this doctor very well could be the witch from the other night, she was very good at playing her role, and that she had kept it up for who knows how long goes to show the extent of that ability. He wondered if he might be able to steal a glance under the woman's sleeves to see if she had the tattoos, he quickly shot the idea down, if she'd been at it this long she must have been hiding them with more than just sleeves.

Maka seemed to brighten and thanked the doctor and ran over to where Artorias, Tsubaki, and Black Star were. She began asking them if they wanted to do anything, but Artorias half-paid attention as he watched the nurse from beneath his hood as she turned her back on them and walked over to the medical cabinet. He'd keep an eye and ear out to make sure his suspicions are correct, he doubted anyone might believe him as he has only just met the woman and they have known her for possibly years, but sometimes paranoia paid off.

"Are you coming Artorias?" Maka asked from the doorway, Tsubaki and Black Star having already left.

He shook off his thoughts and looked at her and nodded, "Yes, apologies, I was just…thinking is all," he said and lowered his arms and walked over to her and she looked up at him and then at Dr. Medusa as he noticed his glance at her.

"Is everything alright?" she asked.

He gave the nurse one final look as she attended to Maka's unconscious father before looking down at Maka, "It's nothing," he said and she smiled after a moment and moved aside for him to duck out the door.

* * *

It was several days later and Artorias was walking the halls of the academy by himself as he had familiarized himself with the place long ago and was allowed to go where he wished whenever he desired and was making his way to the library as the sun sank low. Maka was in the nurses office as usual to check up on Soul, who had recovered consciousness a day or two ago and she always checked up on him whenever she had the time. As the day was getting late and they had no classes at this time, it was obvious she'd make one last stop by him for the day before returning to him in the early morning with a change of clothes.

As Artorias approached the library, Kid fell into step beside him, "Ah Artorias, my good knight," the boy said in his usual, slightly stuck-up, tone, "making your way to the library as well?" he asked.

"Yes," the knight replied, "I am in need of some quiet and I feel I need to take my mind off of some things." He had been reading his journal quite a bit lately, maybe too much, he missed the halls of Anor Londo, his companions Alvina and Sif, it grew weary on him and while he felt it was good to read it, it made his mind uneasy and plagued him with homesickness. Lords-be-damned, he almost began to miss the snobby nobles who would give him the occasional sneer when they thought he was not looking.

"I see," Kid said with a nod, "well I am going to study legendary weapons, the weapons of old are always well known for being so perfectly symmetrical to the smallest detail, just like your own," he said giving the sword a lovers look. Artorias eyed him strangely with a brow raised, on several occasions the boy had asked to marvel at his blade if not to just simply look at it as its weight was beyond his strength.

Artorias opened the door and allowed Kid in first before following, it was one of the few doors he didn't have to worry about ducking through, several times already when he was not thinking about it he had banged his head against the frame of a door. As Artorias stepped in he spotted Black Star on top of a large pile of books, one of many that left him frowning at how they kept their library in order, laughing loudly and talking to himself aloud as he read a book.

Kid approached him and asked for the book he was sitting on as Artorias, unable to find a book to his liking, approached one of the piles beside them and heard them conversing about a sword by the name of Excalibur.

He glanced over and Black Star looked up at him, "Oh, hey Artorias, are you being punished too?" he asked and Artorias raised his brow.

"Not…quite," he said confused, "I'm simply looking for a suitable book," he said and grabbed a particularly old looking one that had eerily familiar writing on it. He grabbed it and held it up to them to show he had found one and walked over to a table as Stein passed, they nodded to each other in acknowledgement and the doctor approached Black Star and Kid as they continued on about their sword.

Stein talked to them about the sword and seemed to greatly intrigue them even more as Artorias approached a table and crossed his legs as he sat and wiped the dust off the cover. Yes, this was very familiar writing, writing in fact that he had studied bent over a book in the libraries of Anor Londo…what in the Lords' names was it doing here. Artorias opened the book with gentle fingers and began to read, Tsubaki walked in and Black Star asked her to clean up the books for him while he and Kid searched for Excalibur. She happily complied and they left while Stein also grabbed a book and sat at the table beside Artorias as Tsubaki set to work.

Stein leaned over the table and watched as Artorias turned a page and traced his gauntleted finger across each line of script. "You can read that?" he asked and Artorias glanced up at him.

"You are as surprised to see me reading it as I am surprised to see it here," he said in return.

Stein was silent as he looked at the book in thought, "It was found by a weapon and their meister long ago in an ancient ruin in the middle of the desert, I believe they said it was in some hidden canyon I think. They said it was lying on the steps to the place and that the writing was unreadable and there was never a translation made as no one even knew where to begin to try and translate it. You know what it is?" he asked after a moment of silence.

Artorias lowered his gaze to the book slowly after a moment and was silent for just as long. "This is what I have been looking for," he said quietly and closed the book, he reached back and strapped it to his belt. "It is demonscript," he said plainly and Stein raised a brow, "very few from Lordran know it and whoever wrote it most likely did it in said script so as to hide what it details, though what it does may help me."

"Why might that be?" Stein asked.

Artorias thought of what to say so as to explain, after a moment, "You can see souls, correct?" he asked and Stein nodded, "Look into mine, tell me what you see."

Stein looked at him confused for a moment before shrugging and staring at him, "You have a very…confusing soul, it is very obscure, from what I can make out it's nothing like what I can describe. You are obviously not human, that much was already clear however, and your soul is very bright," his brows furrowed together though. "Wait, there is something else, something dark, it's hanging onto your soul, like a parasite," Artorias nodded slowly.

"That is what I seek from this book," he said and Stein tilted his head to the side, Tsubaki walked by and grabbed a book off the table as Artorias continued. "My title is Abysswalker, as you may know," Stein nodded, "before I arrived that was what I was doing, fighting the Abyss. It is a corruption, the residents of Oolacile, drawn in by its power, allowed it into them to give them great magical power, at the cost of driving their humanity insane. Knights were sent in to control the spread of the Abyss, but all failed, even the great archer Gough, and I was sent with my wolf companion Sif," at this point Tsubaki had stopped and was listening intently with Stein.

"We fought our way through the corrupted city, the inhabitants forms morphed and twisted as well as their sanity as the corruption spread. We worked our way down to the depths of the wretched place when Sif was hurt, I placed my shield with him to keep him safe from the sprites that haunted the place and drained ones energy with but a touch. I was weakened greatly by the place itself and the constant fighting, when I reached the center, I pulled into the darkest of the Abyss by its most wicked inhabitant, where its power was at its greatest. There I fought the beast…and there I lost, spiked through at last by one of its accursed sorceries when my wards finally failed."

He was silent for a short while, "I don't know how I arrived in the temple the children found me near, but it must be tied with the Abyss somehow." He looked up at Stein, "Your world and mine and not so different, especially in the way of the souls, and what you see in mine is the corruption of the Abyss, slowly eating at me, only repelled by my magic that was designed to fight it." Tsubaki had raised a hand to her mouth in shock, "You wonder about the demon blade inside the boy Crona, do you not?" he asked Stein.

"Yes, on the occasion."

"What you do not know, if you have not pieced it together by now, is that the corruption inside the boy that gives him that power, it is Abyssal, that is the reason why I was so affective against him when we fought." Stein had placed a hand on his chin in thought, "Your black blood, as you call it," he had a conversation with Stein about Soul's condition and it had been brought up, "is a very pure form of the Abyssal corruption. Should the need to arise, I am the one you should turn to to permanently rid yourselves of it, at the cost of the boys life," he said and Stein frowned and looked at him. "There is no other way," he said sensing the next question, "it has already bound itself to the boys humanity and corrupted it. To get rid of it is to drive him hollow and insane, it would be better to finish him than to let him be hollow."

There was a long silence as Stein thought, "And what of you?" he asked at last," how are you going to get rid of your problem?"

"That is what I hope to learn, it is very weak at this time as I have kept it in that state, when it tries to overcome me, as it did when I lost balance during your fight with the children the first time you met them." He looked at Tsubaki, "You remember, no?" he asked.

"When you stumbled and fell down?" she asked, he nodded and she mimicked the gesture.

"It was making a push at conquering a part of my soul," he said and she looked very worried. "I contained it that very night when we returned," he said, "I have been searching for a way to rid myself of this accursed corruption and from what I have deciphered from this book, I should soon find it," he said.

Stein nodded, still in thought, "So why is it you can remove the corruption from yourself without any consequences but the boy would have to die?" he asked.

Artorias swirled his hand in a circular motion as he thought of a way to explain, "It is…complicated," he said.

"How so?"

"As I said before, the corruption on the boy has taken root of his humanity, that is what the Abyss strikes at in the soul, its humanity. I, as you yourself have confirmed, am not human, I have nary a trace of dark within me and the corruption on me, while from a pure source, is immature and weak and while it is yet known to me as to how to remove it, it would not affect my soul. The boy and the corruption are one, the corruption, or black blood, has settled into his soul properly over time as it has done with the residents of Oolacile. His humanity is his very life essence, only allowed to be stable by the corruption, to remove the corruption will destroy his humanity or very well drive it wild and twist him and, as I have said, drive him insane."

He sighed, "Should there have been an alternative, I would not have used my sword to get through Oolacile," he said grimly at last and Stein nodded.

"I see," he said and looked up, "will you need help removing this…corruption?" he asked.

Artorias shrugged, "I wish to find out, though I feel I will be the only one able to do it as I already have the expertise necessary to accomplish such a task."

Tsubaki spoke up then, "How do you know how to get rid of the black blood in the boy you were talking about but not the corruption in yourself?" she asked quietly.

Artorias was slightly tired of repeating himself, but he was fine with it, "Because girl, the boy is human, humans are more susceptible to corruption than one such as myself. As very few other nonhumans have been infected and lived long enough to tell the tale…" seeing the look on her face he explained. "Nonhumans, as in Gods, half-gods, immortals, and so on, do not have the dark of humanity inside them, the corruption cannot take proper root, and instead kills its host instead of controlling them. As I was saying, the corruption is like a leech on a bar of soap, a poor metaphor but it will have to do, the leech clings to the soap but cannot suck much benefit from it and is only barely holding on. If one would not like to damage the soap you must find a certain, careful method to remove the parasite, as is the case of my soul."

She looked down a bit in sadness, "Will you be alright?" she asked.

Artorias shrugged, "If all goes well and I learn of how to remove it and do so properly, then the worst that can happen is that I will be weakened for several days. However," he added carefully and grimly, "should I fail to find a way or do the procedure improperly, it will slowly eat away at me, despite how hard and long I may contain it, until my death, or it will instantaneous." Stein's face was dark and Tsubaki's was full of concern, "You should not worry though, it will take long for the corruption to do much to me and for now you need not concern. If I understood it correctly though the cure if definitely within this book," she seemed to relax.

He stood and stretched, "Allow me to assist you with the books, I need to take my mind off this nonsense," he said and she smiled and nodded and handed him a stack of books.

"Okay, here, I'll explain how everything is laid out," she said and they spent the next couple hours sorting through the books and putting them away while Stein researched whatever it was he came here for, asking them politely to leave the books he had grabbed while he worked.

Tsubaki grabbed the last book as Sid came in, "Let's see, are you still hard at work like a good boy Black Star?" he looked around the now cleared floor as Artorias walked over to a latter that would take him down. Sid ran in, "Ooo, see what you can do when you put your mind to it?" he said in joy.

Tsubaki looked over at him with a smile, "Oh, hi professor Sid," she said in her usual happy and gentle voice, "after I put this book away we'll be all done," she said as Artorias slid down the latter and landed beside her.

"Tsubaki?" he said in surprise, "So that sneaky little rat dumped his punishment on you guys and took off did he?" he asked looking around.

"Actually, Artorias volunteered to help," she tried to explain as Sid continued his rant, "it's okay professor, don't worry about it, I enjoy cleaning." When it was obvious he wasn't paying attention she looked at Artorias, he just shrugged and gently took the book from her and put it away on a shelf she couldn't reach.

Stein looked over and lowered his book, "If you're looking for Black Star he and Kid went to go search for the Holy Sword. Why has he done something wrong?" Artorias and Tsubaki shared a confused look as the two talked about Excalibur again before Sid walked out clutching his head talking about how he'll let it slide and that there were tests to be graded.

Artorias reached to his belt and withdrew the book and began to study it closely while Tsubaki asked Stein about the sword Excalibur, but he hardly paid mind to it as he created a cipher chart in his head. After a while he heard a voice next to him, "That's very strange writing," Tsubaki said looking over his arm at the old pages.

Artorias blinked his dried eyes and looked at her, he rubbed his eyes, he was growing tired, tonight he'd definitely get some rest. "Yes, it is an ancient form of script written by the daughters of Izalith to communicate between one another. When their mother turned them all mad and created the first of the demons the script became known as demonscript and now very few people outside the few remaining daughters alive know it…myself being one of them," he added.

She shivered, "Sounds scary," she looked at the book, "even the writing looks scary," she said and Artorias nodded in agreement.

"As I have said before, Lordran can be a very scary place indeed," he closed the book and strapped it once again to his belt.

"Did you find anything useful?" she asked.

"Somewhat," Artorias replied with a sigh, "the text is in almost a riddle and I have not gotten far, but it has begun to talk about the affects of the Abyssal corruption on a soul, human and non-, and if who I believe wrote this did indeed, then I am on the right track."

Tsubaki tilted her head a bit in curiosity, "You know who wrote it?" she asked.

He shrugged, "There was a man I knew who once asked me a great many questions about the Abyss and one day set off to find it, a fool's errand. He left to a long cleared city but was never seen again," he held up the book, "if this is any indication, I think I know what happened to him."

"Sooo," she said, "do you think the Abyss and our world are connected?"

Artorias frowned, not that she could tell, it was an interesting thought and one that caused him pause. "I know not," he said at last, "however if I am any indication, it is a possibility I do not wish to fathom. Let us end the conversation if you will, I have thought more about that wretched place in one day than I ever cared to in a lifetime," he asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Tsubaki said.

"'Tis not your fault, you were curious and I feel I may have also helped myself answering some of your questions. For now though I wish to retire to Soul and Maka's, I'm sure you would like to see if Black Star has claimed his prize, no?" he asked and her features grew down.

He bent to her level and looked her in the eye, "I know you do not approve of Black Star seemingly searching for a new partner," he said and she quickly jumped away in surprise at the statement.

"No, not at all, I mean he just wants to find a more suitable weapon, it's my own fault I haven't been good enough," she said loudly and slightly defensively at first, but slowly her voice had quieted and drifted to sadness as she looked away from him in thought.

Artorias took a step forward, "We both know he'll come back to you though, you're the only person on this earth who can put up with him as well as you do," he comforted her and she looked at him with a small smile and nodded. "Good girl," he said patting her on the back, "now why don't we be off, I have sleep to be had and you have a madman to control," he said and she laughed a bit and they walked out of the library, Stein still at his table reading.

* * *

The next day Artorias went with Maka to the academy, once walking in the door they split directions, Maka going to the nurses office while Artorias searched for a room that might contain the supplies he needed. He had studied the book much the night before and he had found what he had been looking for, now all he needed were the supplies it listed. He turned down a hall looking for the correct room number, when he found it he was too busy studying the list to remember to duck and slammed into the top the doorway.

His helmet stopped much of it, but he was so tall compared to these doors that it would have hit about his brow were it not for the helmet. He shook his head and mentally smacked himself for not paying attention and ducked in the doorway. After collecting what he needed to from the supply closet, which he had obtained permission to use from Lord Death the week before. He got most of the ingredients he needed when he ran into a dire problem, he needed the horn of a Capra Demon with which the ingredients will be mashed up and poured into and then drunk out of. While the skulls of demons often made great trophies, or dragons in the case of Ornstein, he himself never grabbed the horn off of a Capra and therefore doubted he'd find one in his bottomless box.

He felt hope in his heart slowly drip away and his face become straight, he organized the supplies and rolled them into a piece of leather, maybe he could hold onto them for right now; he convinced himself that maybe they could be of use later and put them in his bottomless box. He stepped out of the room and saw Black Star and Tsubaki walking down the hall, he wanted to wink to tell her he told her so, but when asked to come with them and he did, he nudged her arm with his and she looked up at him and he gave a small nod, which she smiled to.

Down the hall they came across Kid and his two partners, Liz and Patty, Artorias having learned their names long ago as they now shared a classroom. Black Star and Kid both stopped and looked at each other for a while before walking up to each other and clasping hands, "We both got fine partners now already huh?" Black Star said.

Kid just nodded but didn't say anything and they lowered their hands, Liz and Patty seemed a little confused but Tsubaki kept a blank face as she knew what they were talking about.

"Alright," a familiar voice said from behind them and everyone turned to see Soul walking toward them, "Seems like everyone's together again."

"Hey Soul," they all said, save Artorias who gave a small nod.

"So, you all fixed up now?" Black Star asked approaching the white haired kid and they bumped wrists, "The real party can't be started without you around," he said.

"Yeah," Soul said, "I'm a lot better."

Artorias watched Kid and Black Star whisper about something but Artorias paid more attention to the adult that approached him in the hallway as the two boys walked confused into the classroom as Maka called them. "Artorias?" the man asked and Artorias nodded, "Lord Death wishes to speak to you," he turned to Tsubaki, "as well as you and your meister Black Star," he said before tipping his hat and walking away.

Tsubaki looked up at him with a shrug and went to go get Black Star while Artorias made his way to the Death Room. When he got there he turned and saw the pair coming down the hall after him, he waited and held the door open for them before following. They walked down the guillotine walkway and soon entered the center of the room, Lord Death turned to face them.

"Oh, there you are," he said as they approached, his voice as jolly as usual, "sorry for calling you here so early in the morning but I think it's fairly urgent," he said.

Black Star smiled, "And you called the best of the best, I understand," he said waving it off.

Death gave the equivalent of a raised brow as he looked at the boy before continuing. "For years the people inside a small town not too far away have dreaded the forest outside their village, afraid for their lives to enter as most who do don't come back. We have never had much reason to investigate this phenomenon, however," he said, "last night we detected a small soul wavelength that had actually been there the entire time but we haven't been able to distinguish what it is. In fact," he said looking at Artorias, "we found it similar to your own in how it was obscured," he said and Artorias slowly crossed his arms as he listened.

"Black Star, Tsubaki," he said looking at the two of them, "as you have gathered literally no Kishin souls yet, I want you to go with Artorias to explore the site and if something is there, and since he needs no use for the soul, hopefully you can get some progress," he said.

Black Star snorted in annoyance, "Psh, a star as big as me doesn't need some old knight's help. Tsubaki and I can handle it no problem," he said.

"While I often would agree with you Black Star," Lord Death said, "you tell me that every time and the results have yet to change. This is more Artorias' mission anyway as I would like him to handle what is likely a phenomena that is likely from his own world that he may have experience with." He looked over at Artorias, "Stein spoke to me the other day about your conversation with him," Death informed him.

Artorias nodded, "I understand, you needed to learn of it sooner or later," he said and Lord Death made a small bow of his head.

"Now then, is there anything else you may need?" he asked.

"The location of the village perhaps?" Artorias speculated.

"Ah yes," Death said, his large hand popping out to hand him a slip of paper detailing the villages location on a map compared to their own.

Artorias studied it, Black Star attempting to peek a glance at it when the knight nodded and rolled the slip of paper up and strapped it to his belt, "It will be done," he said and Lord Death nodded.

"Well then, enjoy. Byyye," he said jollily as the trio walked out.

* * *

Artorias looked down at the map and rolled it up as they walked into the village down the main path, Tsubaki and an annoyed Black Star behind him. "Is this it?" Tsubaki asked looking at the bustling village, "you'd think they would care more about something in the woods that's been eating peoples souls for years," she said.

Artorias led them through the town, not looking back as he spoke, "The people have most likely avoided the woods for a long while, keeping only legends to ward off the curious. Eventually they get used to avoiding the woods if only because everyone else has for years and the creature within keeps to itself if only most of the time." They walked down the main road and Artorias stopped in the town square, standing tall amongst the crowd as he looked for something.

"What are you looking for?" Black Star asked as he saw Artorias scanning the villagers and store windows.

After a moment, "That," he said striding up to a store window with a sign that read, 'The Beast of Deltras'. Artorias crouched in front of the window as he studied the souvenirs and detailed shirts, the kids right behind him.

Black Star scoffed, "You came here to look for a new shirt?" he said un-amused.

Artorias looked at him from over his shoulder, "The beast has fallen into town legend, it in itself is something of a tourist attraction, the store owner uses propaganda involving the creature to get business." He tapped the window, "And has shown us what it looks like," he said and Tsubaki and Black Star leaned forward to get a look at it as Artorias stood and looked around. He figured it was a demon, but it was better than what he had hoped, it was most likely a Capra Demon if the creature was properly portrayed.

He looked at the kids as they studied the window, "Why don't you two enter the store and ask the owner if he knows where the creature can be found or at least for the general direction and we can start from there."

Tsubaki nodded and Black Star didn't seem to approve of the plan but she nudged him into the store while Artorias examined the village and thought. If a Capra had gotten through years ago, what else had? Capra's were only infantry compared to per-say a Taurus Demon, so it was most likely a scout that got caught up in something to bring him here, but that still left the question what else could have gotten out. This place truthfully was not too far from the temple which Artorias had exited so if that was the place where the worlds were connected, whatever came out of it wouldn't have too many places to go.

He began to think about what the demon blade, Ragnarok could have possibly been when Black Star and Tsubaki walked out with a short man. Artorias looked down at the trio, the man hesitated, "It's alright," Tsubaki said gently, "he's here with us to kill the creature," she said and the man looked at her before regaining his posture and nodding.

He pointed to a darker looking part of the woods and spoke in a language Artorias didn't understand, "Thank you," Tsubaki said kindly and the man nodded and walked back into the store. She looked up at Artorias while Black Star picked his nose, "He didn't take us seriously at first so I wanted to show him you so he would believe us." Artorias nodded, it had been a sound plan, and it had worked and she now pointed where the man had, "He said that we should start in that direction and said to keep his eye out for a group of teens that went missing two days ago."

Artorias nodded, "Then let us be off," he started in that direction and knew they were following when he stopped and turned. They looked up at him, Tsubaki was confused and Black Star frowned, "Listen and do so carefully," he spoke seriously, "I know the creature we are about to face and it is a force to be reckoned with, especially against a human, no offense," he said. Tsubaki nodded and Black Star rolled his eyes, "Stay close to me and do not get lost, the beast has had years to explore this terrain and has made it its domain. Do not, I repeat, do not try and take it one by yourself, do you understand?" Tsubaki nodded and Black Star didn't even make eye contact. "Black Star," Artorias barked and the boy looked at him with little interest, "Do I make myself clear?"

"A star as big as myself doesn't need your help, I bet I can kick this things ass faster than you can take that sword off your back," he taunted.

Artorias looked the boy in the eye and stood, "Know then that you will only be endangering yourself and your partner, should you break away to fight it all by yourself, know that it will not have any mercy," he said and turned and began walking, the duo caught up with him as he reached the forest and entered it.

* * *

It had been about a half hour since they had entered the woods and Artorias had withdrawn his sword from his back long ago and checked over his shoulder every now and then to make sure the two were still behind him. He knew that while Tsubaki would normally listen to him, she also would still, if reluctantly, follow Black Star should he decide to break off and go on his own. He heard a snap and stopped and held his fist up and listened carefully, he heard nothing, not even the birds were singing in this part of the woods.

After a moment he lowered his hand, "It should be clear," he said looking back, "let's…" he stopped and his eyes widened, there was no one there. He felt his blood bubble in anger and he looked around quickly hoping to spot them but saw nothing and he would not risk alerting the Demon of their presence calling their names. He quickened his pace, he had to find them quickly, before _it_ did.

* * *

Tsubaki bit her lip as she stopped and looked back, it had been about five minutes since they had left Artorias and gone in a different direction, "Black Star, do you even know where you're going?" she whispered with great concern.

"Hahahah," he laughed, "Of course I do Tsubaki, a man as big as I doesn't need an old knight to guide me," he said a bit too loud.

"Black Star be at least a little quiet, if Artorias doesn't hear us," which she hoped he would, "then that thing will," she whispered.

"You don't need to worry about that Tsubaki, I'm an assassin, nothing can-Wo-ah!" he said loudly as he tripped and fell face-first into the dirt.

"Black Star!" she hissed, walking over and picking him up.

"What did I-?" he began as he shook his head and they both jumped back as they saw a blood splattered leg coming out of a bush. "I think we found one of the teenagers the old man was talking about," Black Star said as Tsubaki shook with terror and quickly looked around.

She squeaked and covered her mouth when she heard a deep, hollow breathing and looked around, "Black Star," she whispered with fright.

He held a finger to his lips and shushed her as he slowly crept over to a bush and parted its leaves. They both stifled gasps as they saw in the middle of a small patch of light was a large muscular beast with molted skin and wearing a torn set of brown rags for pants held up by rope. They couldn't see its head as it was hunched over something but they could make out two horns as well as two absolutely massive stone swords lying on the ground.

"Hey you!" Black Star shouted and the creature stopped its small movements, "are you the ugly monster we're looking for?" he asked.

"Black Star!" Tsubaki said quietly and looked on in terror as the thing grabbed one sword for each hand and stood and looked at them. Tsubaki grasped, it's head was like the skull of a goat except much more wicked looking and with burning red flames for eyes. It turned toward them and dragged the two massive weapons behind it as it approached. "Black Star," Tsubaki said again with quiet desperation as it closed in on them.

* * *

**AN: Hey all, hope you guys enjoy this chapter, I know I've been spitting these things out like crazy, but I'll be honest, I just feel like I can't stop. It's a good thing really as I've gotten back into the Soul Eater and Dark Souls vibe as I've been watching the series over again and playing the game a lot more and getting a lot of cool ideas I hope you guys like. **

** I think after the next chapter I'll be somewhat worn out with ideas and all if I make it as long as the past couple, but I'll still try. Thank you to all who have made it this far, thank you for giving the story a chance and I hope to see some reviews trying to help me fix some mistakes and such. Thank you all again, enjoy, and have a great day.**


	6. Chapter 6

The Abyssal Ch. 6

Black Star grabbed Tsubaki's hand and pulled her away as the thing spun its giant blades and jumped forward, slamming them into the ground where they were but a moment before. "Tsubaki!" he said through the cloud of dust that was kicked up by the attack, giving them an accurate portrayal of how heavy the weapons were and how strong the beast was.

She quickly transformed into her weapon form and Black Star was quick to attack the creature, jumping into a tree and coming down behind the beast and attempting to lash out at its back. He managed to hit it, but Tsubaki just bounced off of the creature's rough hide.

"Black Star," she warned as the creature quickly stood straight and held both the weapons in its hands and gave them a powerful swing. Black Star flipped back as the giant weapons literally cut a tree down. "He might be slow, but he hits like a truck Black Star," she tried to warn him.

"Don't worry Tsubaki, this guy isn't a problem at all we'll have him-,"

"Look out!" she shouted from his hands and he looked up in surprise to see the thing with one arm raised high to bring its sword down on them. Black Star jumped back at the last second and was about to attack seeing as the creature was slightly off balance when it took another step forward and swung its other sword. Black Star rounded a tree and the sword bit deep into it and stuck.

Thinking he had an opening, Black Star was about to round the tree when the creature rammed it with his shoulder and the tree cracked and began to fall, he was forced to jump back as the tree crashed to the ground. It was playing a powerful offense and was on them a lot faster than Black Star kept expecting. He threw one of his scythes at the creatures legs and it wrapped around its ankle and began to run around it to try and trip it when it two handed its weapons again and swung them in the opposite direction to meet him, and it made contact. Thankfully for him, he tried to jump away at the last second and the slightly blunt, rounded tips of its weapons hit him right in the stomach.

"Black Star!" Tsubaki shouted as the boy was taken off his feet and was carried through the air until suddenly jerking forward and slamming into the ground as the chain still connected to the beast's ankle stopped his flight. He tried to get up, but the attack had hit him hard and knocked the wind out of him. The creature was now stalking toward them slowly with its weapons dragging in the dirt behind it.

Tsubaki transformed into her human form and tried to help Black Star up when the creature let out a hollow roar and held its arms out to leap at them like it had done before. Tsubaki's eyes widened as she watched it, they would surely perish, being crushed into the soil by its powerful weapons. Suddenly there was a rushing in the woods and Artorias suddenly dove out of the foliage and tackled the beast to the ground.

* * *

Artorias had heard the trees crashing and had made his way over as quickly as he could to find the Capra Demon ready to crush the two kids as Black Star attempted to get up with Tsubaki at his side. He dove at the creature and brought it to the ground. It was about the same height as him and when they hit the dirt he looked right into its face, hollow eyes looked at him with rage before it kicked him off with a powerful foot.

Artorias stumbled back and raised his sword as the creature got up and roared at him, sparks and flame flew from its mouth and it raised its machetes. Artorias held his sword with both hands; he didn't have a shield and would be forced to do more dodging than blocking in this fight, but with both hands on his sword he might be able to do some deflecting. Those machetes were heavy and the creature holding them was strong as well as nimble if it chose to be, this would be a hard fight, as is every battle with a demon.

He glanced at the kids, "Move, now!" he shouted and Tsubaki moved a half-conscious Black Star out of the line of fire as the Capra circled him. Suddenly, seeing an opening, it lunged with both of its weapons together in a powerful swing that Artorias back-stepped from. While he had no doubts in his own strength, a normal Capra Demon by itself was a force to be reckoned with and this one had been devouring souls for who knows how many years, growing in strength with each kill. If Artorias was to win this battle he would have to rely on his speed.

The Demon quickly stepped forward and lunged forward with its head, Artorias caught its horns and tried to push it away when it turned a bit and swept his legs out with one of its machetes. Artorias hit the dirt and immediately rolled back and pushed off the ground with his hands and landed on his feet as the Demon's other machete slammed into the dirt. Alright, so it wasn't stupid either, that was good to know. Artorias circled the beast as it pulled its weapon from the dirt, he saw it was slightly off balance and dashed forward. As he expected, it expected him to move and had already prepared another swing.

Artorias rolled over the swing and slammed the side of his sword into the creature and it doubled over. Much to his surprise though, it quickly backhanded him with its left hand with enough force as to cause him to spin back, his sword having only left a red mark where it had hit. So its hide was tougher too, great, that meant he'd have to either do more thrusting attacks or aim for where it might be weaker, like its throat. Artorias quickly thought of a plan and raised his sword with both hands on the pommel, if it did what he expected, it would all be over.

It unknowingly cooperated with his plan perfectly as it used its momentum from backhanding him to swing its right-hand machete down at him. He stepped to the side slightly and used his sword to redirect the weapon into the dirt. His left hand let go of his sword and he use his arm to twist the machete from the Demon's grasp. Artorias grabbed the back of the Demon's head and angled his sword upward, thrusting its neck down on the tip of his awaiting sword.

Blood dripped from the wound and smoked on the ground, the dark liquid running down his blade as the Demon opened its mouth slightly and blood dripped from its corners. The beast began to slump and Artorias broke a horn off its skull then removed his sword and stepped aside in one movement, letting the demon collapse onto the ground and then begin to dissolve in a mix of smoke and light.

Tsubaki approached with Black Star leaning against her, his arm over her shoulder as she held him. Suddenly though, he took in a deep breath and looked around in surprise, "Did I kill it? Where's its soul?" he asked in excitement, looking around as Artorias reach down and plucked an orange sprite off the ground. Black Star and Tsubaki eyed it curiously, "That doesn't look like a normal Kishin egg," the boy said and frowned as Artorias took out his bottomless box and open it. "Hey!" Artorias paused with the sprite held over the open box, "Lord Death said you wouldn't need that and it was my kill anyway!"

Artorias set the soul in the box, "This is the soul of demon from my world," he explained closing it, "and it was in fact _my_ kill. While I may not have a use for it, it belongs with me and if Tsubaki were to consume it, it would be sure to corrupt her," he said and Black Star's frown increased with dissatisfaction.

"It's okay Black Star, besides, it didn't look too appetizing," she said looking at the horn Artorias was strapping to his belt. "Why did you grab that?" she asked curiously with a tilt of her head.

Artorias fastened the horn in place and looked at her as he grabbed a large leaf to wipe his sword, "I will need it later, for a reason you are already aware," he said and she thought about it for a moment before looking surprised as she remembered their conversation from yesterday. He wiped the blood and dropped the leaf at his feet and it soon caught fire from the blood, Artorias expected this and quickly stamped it out. The two kids looked at it in surprise, "Are you glad she did not consume its soul now," they both nodded vigorously.

* * *

When they returned they went straight to the Death Room to find Lord Death still there. "Lord Death," Artorias said in acknowledgment with a small bow of his head with Black Star and Tsubaki in tow behind him.

"Ah, I see you were successful," he said.

"Yes, we'd have been here sooner but Black Star wished to spend a half hour trying to take one of the demon's machetes home as a trophy," he said eying the boy.

Black Star just shrugged with an unregretful look and crossed his arms, "So it was a creature from your world after all hmmm?" Lord Death asked.

"Indeed, however I wish to hold onto the soul of the Capra as I feel it would be best in my hands," he said.

Death sighed, "I understand, being as it is from your world you must surely know its affects, sorry kids, I thought you might be able to claim a soul for once," he said apologetically.

"It's okay Lord Death," Tsubaki replied with a smile, "with what we saw its blood do I don't want to find out what its soul was like," she said.

He bowed his head a little, "Thank you, you may leave," he said and the two kids nodded and turned to walk out while Artorias remained.

Tsubaki turned as there was a lack of clanking steps behind them, "Artorias, are you coming?" she asked, Black Star stopping and looking back, waiting for his partner.

The knight turned and Lord Death gave the equivalent of a raised brow, "Go on, I wish to have a few words with Lord Death in private." Black Star shrugged and continued down the guillotine walkway, Tsubaki hesitated for a moment before rushing after the boy. Artorias sighed when they were out of sight, "They are good kids. The whole lot of them," he said still looking down the walkway.

"Indeed they are; there was something you wanted to talk about?"

Artorias finally turned, "Yes, I am sure professor Stein has already told you about my…predicament," a nod, "Then I must ask to go on a mission alone so as to deal with it."

Lord Death tilted his head curiously, "Artorias, you are already aware that you may go wherever it is you please, we aren't forcing you to stay."

He nodded, "I am aware, however, this task I wish to complete is possibly dangerous toward myself and I do not know how long I am to be away," he sighed, "I mainly wish to ask you not to tell the children, I would not like them to come looking for me."

Lord Death watched him, his mask-like face unreadable, "You want me to lie to them?"

"If they come asking."

"Hmm…and this will cure you of whatever is attached to your soul?"

Artorias nodded, "That is the suspected outcome," he said, watching as Lord Death thought.

"What should I do if you do not return?" he asked at last.

The knight had thought about that for a while on the trip back, "Then you may tell the children to look where they had first found me, they will know."

Death nodded, "I'm sure you know what you're doing?" a nod, "Then good luck, Artorias, I hope to see your return."

Artorias placed a fist to his heart and bowed his head before standing straight, "As do I, Lord Death, as do I."

* * *

Artorias had left the city not long after, taking care as to avoid any path Maka, Tsubaki, or Black might be on so they would not question where he was going. Perhaps he regretted not telling them, but it was more likely Maka would wish to come with him and she was already worried enough about Soul, she needn't be anxious for him as well.

So here he was, trudging through the sand in the black of night toward the hidden valley in which he had been found, the smiling moon above his head casting light across the barren wastes. He wandered for many hours before at last finding what he suspected was the entrance to the valley. He walked down the path for several minutes before coming across the first of the trees which led to the fortress he had exited when first he had arrived. He walked down the pathway and stopped at the top of the steps and turned around, watching the trees as the moon cast light down over them.

Artorias felt himself smile a bit, if the potion he was planning to make ended up being a poison to him, then this was a beautiful last scene. Sighing, he turned and took out a torch and lit it using little sticks with read tips Soul had given him called 'matches'. Artorias waved the match out and tossed it aside, raising the torch to light his way as he proceeded through still familiar hallways. He spent several minutes wandering the corridors when at last he stepped out into a large chamber where the only thing he could see was the large staircase to his left.

As he walked down the stairs, vivid memories of his confusion when first he had awoken fluttered into his mind; it was humorous how things had changed since then. Artorias finally stepped down from the last step and walked into the middle of the room, nothing but darkness surrounding him outside of his torch. He looked around for a moment before kneeling down, making a makeshift holder for his torch, and then taking out his bottomless box. He opened it and took out all the ingredients he would need, setting them up in a circle around him. Finally, he unstrapped the Capra horn from his belt and set to work, wondering how exactly the potion would work, but not enough to distract him from the task at hand.

After several hours of careful potion making, Artorias finally lowered the Capra horn from his lips and his talisman fell from his hand as he fell back onto the ground and gasped. The liquid burned, but he felt it working as it felt like it was working its way into his very core as it wracked his body with pain. The torment lasted for what felt like eternity when at last he felt as though a great hand suddenly let him go from its constricting grasp and his body finally relaxed, the tension falling away. He took in small, quiet breaths and felt his eyes grow heavy and he tried to move to no avail, finally letting his head fall to the side and letting his eyes close.

* * *

Artorias sat up with a startle and took in a deep breath as though waking from a nightmare. He raised a hand to his chest and still felt his heart beating, he let out a deep sigh and felt his breathing ease and the sweat stopped coming off his brow. He calmed himself and looked around and soon realized he wasn't in the dark chamber he had been in before, in fact he was in the middle of an open coliseum, one which was familiar.

It was a coliseum from the city of Oolacile, but what was he…? When he turned his head he saw a lone figure on their knees in front of a small stone that was on the ground with a beautiful white flower resting in front of it. He'd be damned though if he did not recognized the locks of ivory that fell down the back of the blue clad woman's headdress.

"Ciaran," he mumbled quietly as he could the sadness in the woman's posture as she kneeled over the grave. He reached out to touch her as he stood behind her, but he hesitated a moment, unsure of what would happen; this was surely a dream, but it felt so very real. His fingers gently fell on her shoulder, he felt them make contact but she did not move, "Ciaran," he said again ever so quiet but looked away after a moment, it was but a dream.

However, the woman looked at her shoulder and then over it, "Ar-Artorias?" she asked confused, though her posture remained, and he looked at her in shock. He smiled happily and was about to respond after seeing her wonderful face again, her mask on the ground beside the grave, but it dropped to sadness as he saw the hope in her eyes die and she looked down and then back at the grave.

She laughed sadly to herself, "I am going mad," she said and fell back on her legs a bit and hunched her back in sadness and reached into a pouch of hers and withdrew a blue soul that looked ever so small. Artorias looked at the sprite and absentmindedly touched his chest, was that…was that his soul? "My dear Artorias," she said almost stroking the soul, she held it close to her and he saw a tear squeeze free from her eye.

So this is what he had done, this woman he had never seen cry for anything, now did so in his name; he felt ashamed. Artorias crouched low and lifted a hand and caught the tear and tried to brush it away, Ciaran's eyes opened wide and she quickly looked up and around as, to Artorias' surprise, the tear was now resting calmly on his gauntleted finger. She looked at the soul slowly before looking up, "You are…you are here?" she asked calmly and Artorias sat still for a minute.

"Yes," he said quietly, unsure if she could hear him and she lowered her head, a look of shock on her face.

She straightened herself though and choked out, "W-where are you?"

He smiled and knelt next to her, resting a hand on hers, "Right here," he said and clasped her hand in his tightly. She looked down at it and stared before she suddenly lunged forward, surprisingly actually wrapping her arms around him around the neck even though she didn't seem able to see him. Her chin was tucked on his chest and he sat shocked for a moment that she was able to do so but soon wrapped his arms tight around her.

"I've missed you so," she said quietly, "I thought you were dead?"

"Why?" he asked.

She was near tears, he could hear her sniff, "You were mad, Artorias, the Abyss had claimed you and driven you crazy; your mind not your own. When you did not report back to Anor Londo after Gough, I was sent in and saw you in this state, but I…I could not…" she stopped and Artorias tightened his grip on her a bit, trying to be closer to her. "A human came along," she said after a moment at last, "he did not belong, just something about him was different, like he did not belong." Again silence, "He put an end to your madness," she said sadly and Artorias quickly realized what that meant, "I noticed…I noticed your soul when he approached me and I asked for it. He gave it willingly and apologized and…and I believe he stopped the spread of the Abyss in your stead, with Sif at his side."

Artorias mentally sighed in relief, "Sif is alright?" he asked and she nodded, her headdress rubbing against his breastplate. "And the Covenant?" he asked, it was something only she, Sif, Alvina, and himself knew of.

"He guards it closely," she responded and Artorias took a deep breath.

"It seems all is well in my absence then," he said still unable to contemplate why he was in two worlds at once.

"Not everything," he heard her mutter and he pulled her closer though his touch still gentle. "Artorias," Ciaran said and pulled away slowly he watched her as she looked at the blue soul, "I want you to have this back," she said and held it out to him. He stopped her hand, she stiffened, "Why do you hesitate?" she asked and Artorias untied her gift from long ago from his neck; he had long ago tied it with proper string.

He took her other hand placed the pendant in it and closed her fingers, "A gift, for a gift," he said and gently took the soul from her. She looked at her hand and opened it to see her gift to him long ago, she began to sob now, "Please do not cry," he said and wiped the tears from her eyes and held her chin. "I have given you a piece of my soul…in place of the one you have given me, all is equal and you need not cry for me, for I am whole now. Knowing you are safe and that you are not driven mad by thoughts of me, that is all I require." He felt an invisible hand tug on his very inside and he wrapped his arms around her one last time, "I need to go now," he said quietly and she quickly grabbed his head and planted her lips on his.

"I love you," she choked out when she slowly pulled away, still holding his head.

He rested his head against hers, "I know," he said felt her fingers fall through him and she slowly hunched over and began to sob.

"Give me this time Artorias," she said through her tears, "give me this time to weep and I promise I will only grow stronger," she said and with his final words he whispered.

"You are already strong enough, my dear Ciaran," he said and drifted away like smoke in the wind.

* * *

Maka paced impatiently in the Death Room, Tsubaki and Black Star had just gotten their first Kishin Egg and were on their way back now; while she was happy for them, she was a bit upset Artorias wasn't here to see it. While the knight hadn't been with them too long, maybe for about two months or so, he was a very kind individual and she thought she spoke for everyone when she said he was now a part of their group.

She was confused the day after he, Tsubaki, and Black Star were supposed to have arrived and only he had not returned despite the two of them having seen him with Lord Death after their mission. Maka had quickly approached Lord Death on the subject and he had said that Artorias had already chosen a new mission and had left that night.

What was particularly bothersome was that Maka hadn't seen any new missions on the board the day after and she didn't see any new 'accepted' marks. Plus, why wouldn't he had returned that night to at least say something. Now it had been five days and he still hadn't returned from his mission.

Soul saw the face she was making, "Maka?" he said waving his hand in front of her face like he always did when she was thinking hard and he wanted to get her attention. She looked at him, "What's up? I'd think you'd be happier to see Tsubaki and Black Star get their first soul."

She frowned, "It's not that, not entirely at least. It's just that Artorias isn't here to see it and he always seemed to support them I getting a soul."

It was his turn to frown, he looked around as though expecting him to be there, suddenly noticing, "Yeah, where is the big guy anyway?"

"That's the thing, I don't know, Lord Death said he accepted a new mission as soon as he had gotten back with Tsubaki and Black Star but it's been _five days_!"

Soul seemed displeased by this information; he had been at school at the entire time so this was all news to him. He had noticed Artorias hadn't been in classes recently, but he thought that was more due to the fact the knight didn't see anything interesting anymore and was off doing something else. He thought for a moment, "Why don't we ask Lord Death when Black Star gets back, I'm sure everyone will want to hear about this."

Maka nodded and looked back at Kid and the Thompson twins as they talked about something. Like Artorias, the trio had joined their group as of recently but it seemed like it wasn't entirely official until a few weeks ago when Black Star and Kid had gone off in search of the legendary sword Excalibur, but returned empty-handed and refused to talk about the subject.

Some time later, Tsubaki and Black Star returned and there was a time of happy conversations until Black Star tried to use Tsubaki's new ability and got him a trip to the nurse. Anyway, with all that squared away, Maka looked at Soul and nodded, the two approached Lord Death.

"Lord Death, can I ask you something?" she asked and everyone left in the room looked over at her as there was nothing else left to do.

"Why of course Maka, what is it you need?" he said happily.

"Well, it's about Artorias…" she said and Lord Death sighed, yeah, the first day he was gone wasn't the only day she asked about it.

"Miss Albarn," uh oh, things were getting serious, "we've discussed this topic plenty of times, how much do you want me to repeat myself?"

Kid stepped forward beside Soul, "What about Artorias now?" he asked no one in particular.

Soul looked over at him, "He's apparently been gone on a mission for five days now."

"Is that where he's been?" Tsubaki asked walking up beside Maka.

"I don't see what the problem could be, perhaps he's just having trouble getting back," Kid said, "for all we know he could be climbing the steps to the academy now."

Maka frowned, "Well, for one, I checked the board that day and I didn't see any new 'accepted' stamps for any of the assignments and that still doesn't explain why he wouldn't just stop by at home to at least tell me he was leaving again."

Tsubaki frowned as she had a theory about the reasoning for the knight's disappearance, one that was related to what he had said when she had asked about the horn he had grabbed, and so did Soul as this was new info to him. Lord Death looked over at Stein; the professor nodded and cleared his throat and the kids looked at him.

"I think it's been enough time for us to tell you kids," he said and all the kids listened closely. "Five days ago, upon returning from his mission with Black Star and Tsubaki, Artorias asked Lord Death if he could go on an assignment of his own to deal with a certain…problem that could be dangerous to himself. A problem only he, Tsubaki, Lord Death, and I knew about."

They all seemed visibly upset by this information, "What kind of problem was it?" Kid asked.

"Well, some time ago, when you and Black Star left in search of Excalibur…" Stein began.

Kid shivered but quickly recovered, "When we left the three of you in the library?"

"Yes, then. Artorias was reading a book in a language we had yet to decipher that looked hundreds of years old and began to explain what he was reading. Summed up, he asked me to look into his soul which led into him explaining his predicament. While I couldn't make much of it, like the first time you three and Black Star met me," he said gesturing to Soul, Maka, and Tsubaki, "I noticed that he had a very vibrant soul. On his soul though, was a dark spot, something he referred to as an Abyssal corruption."

Maka spoke up, her frown still present, "He's said that word several times, 'Abyssal', what does that mean?"

"Well, from what he explained, it's an ancient form of dark magic that is extremely powerful but corrupts anyone who uses it to their very soul."

"So, Artorias used this Abyss magic?" Soul asked confused, Artorias hardly seemed like the kind of guy who would use that kind of thing.

"No, from what I gathered, he was on the receiving end of it; I believe he said something about it being pure Abyss magic. He said he had a theory about how to remove the corruption from inside of him and judging from what he said a few days ago, he set out to finally complete that task. He said not to tell any of you if you asked though because he didn't want you to worrying about or going after him and that if he didn't return, then we could inform you all."

Maka looked down, it made sense, he hadn't wanted them to get hurt if something happened. "Did he say where he was going?" Tsubaki asked.

"Yes," Lord Death said, "he said that he would be where you all first found him."

They all thought about it for a minute, "The valley!" Maka said loudly and bowed, "Thank you Lord Death," she said and quickly turned and began running.

"Wait, Maka!" Soul said giving chase with everyone else right behind her.

"Oh dear," Lord Death said as they quickly ran out of sight.

"Probably shouldn't have expected any other reaction," Stein said taking a drag on his cigarette and cranking the giant bolt in his head.

Death sighed, "I guess not, but still, if Artorias thought it wouldn't be safe than surely it must not be."

"Didn't you say his exact words were that it would be more dangerous towards himself?"

"Yes, I guess so; I'm still worried at what they may find though."

"Aren't we all?" Stein asked putting his hand in his pocket, "I'm going to check on Black Star, with luck he hasn't almost killed himself again," and with that the professor nodded and walked out.

Lord Death watched him walk out and hoped that he hadn't done something he might regret sending the kids after Artorias.

* * *

The group walked through the sands, Maka and Tsubaki leading, the moon giving them some light as to see what was in front of them. They had made most of the trip in silence and Maka was fairly certain they were close when Soul spoke up.

"How do you two even remember where this place was? I mean, I don't even remember the way and now we're trying to find it in the middle of the night."

Maka raised a brow and looked over her shoulder at him, "Quit you're complaining Soul, we're almost there," she said with an agitated sigh, it had been about the third time he said the same thing.

"Just wanna make sure we don't get stuck in the middle of the desert," he muttered to himself and fell back a bit to talk with Kid, Liz, and Pattie.

"He's hungry, I can tell, he gets like this when he is," Maka said after a minute.

Tsubaki looked down at her friend, "Well I'm sure he's also just a bit afraid of what we might find," she said quietly.

Maka frowned, "Aren't we all?" Tsubaki gave a small nod after a moment. She was about to say something when she stopped and squinted her eyes, trying to see better, Maka turned, "Tsubaki, what is it?" Maka asked as the four others stopped behind her.

"Do you see something?" Kid asked.

Tsubaki pointed, "I think that's it over there, isn't it?" she asked pointing to a large cliff-face with a large dark crack going down its center.

Maka narrowed her eyes as well, "Yeah, I think it is, come on," she said running over to it with everyone close behind, slowing to a stop at the entrance.

"Yeah, this is definitely it," Soul said as one lone leaf-like petal rode on the wind and swept out of the crack. They all began their walk through the dark chasm.

"I wonder what this place looks like at night," Tsubaki said after a couple of minutes remembering the trees from before.

"What are you guys…talking…about...Oh wow," Liz said with quietly with surprise as they made the final turn, all of them stopping to take in the sight.

The sight was even more beautiful than when Tsubaki last remembered it, the leaves on the trees were a pink color and the way the moon shone down on them made them look amazing. In the back she could make out the entrance to a hidden fortress of some sort and pointed toward it, "Look, I think he went in there," she said pulling everyone out of their trance.

They walked down the pathway and all watched with smiling faces as a small breeze blew through the valley and gently pulled the colorful leaves off their branches and let them drift to the ground. When they were in the fort, Soul took a step forward and his shoe crushed something, looking down he narrowed his eyes and crouched down.

"What'd you find?" Maka asked looking down over his shoulder.

He grabbed the object and lifted it up so he could see it in the moonlight, "Looks like a match from the box I gave him," he said turning what was left of the match in his fingers. "He probably entered the place somewhere, but I can't see anything without some form of light."

There was a quiet howling as the wind swept into the fortress' interior and Liz seemed to stiffen and back away a couple steps, chuckling nervously. "Yeah, well that's too bad, maybe we should go back and come back when it's day time, so you know, the ghosts don't come get us," she said hysterically.

"Calm down, I think I found something," Maka said walking over to the wall and pulling a torch off one of the holsters. "Soul, you got any matches?" she asked and the boy dug through his pocket and tossed it to her.

"Where'd you get those?" Kid asked with a raised brow, Soul hardly seemed like the smoking type.

Soul shrugged, "Stein gave 'em to me the other day, said he had a lighter and wouldn't need them anymore; I think he said it was a good luck charm or something."

"Well it's certainly lucky you had them," Maka said lighting the torch and tossing the matchbox back to Soul. She raised the torch up and saw a doorway at the far wall, "There," she said pointing at it and walking forward.

"We're not seriously going in there are we?" Liz asked with wide eyes and watched as everyone walked toward the doorway, "Are we?! I think Pattie and I are going to stay out here, aren't we Pattie?" but the girl didn't seem to hear her as she skipped after Kid. "Fine, I guess I'll just wait here…by myself," she said wrapping her arms together and looking back at the trees behind her and then back at the dwindling light coming from the doorway. "Oooh," she said in dismay before running after them, "wait up will you!"

* * *

Artorias opened his eyes and stared up into darkness, he blinked once before suddenly shooting up and looking around to see nothing but black. He cursed under his breath and felt around for his torch, finding it he pulled out a matchbox and lit the torch so he could see around him. He winced a bit as his eyes adjusted to the sudden light and he looked down to see a small blue and black sprite floating in his hand, his pendant from Ciaran no longer around his neck.

"So it was a dream, but wasn't at the same time," he muttered to himself and stared at the little sprite. So this was his soul, his heavily corrupted soul, what little bit of corruption he had on his soul inside of him was probably same amount of his soul that was left on this corrupted _thing_ he held. So now the real question remained, if this was how he got the remaining piece of his soul, then how did he replace it for the corruption?

He looked around and saw the book on the ground, reaching over he grabbed it and adjusted himself so he was facing the light from the torch, the book open on the ground in front of him. He did several minutes of reading before finding what he needed, and then he heard voices. Artorias ignored them at first, suspecting it to be one of the side-effects of the potion when he heard them growing louder.

He turned around and saw a light in the far distance getting closer, someone was on the fortress. Then he quickly realized who it must be, it couldn't have been that long could it? It hadn't felt like more than several minutes he spent in Lordran, but then, the flow of time in Lordran had always been distorted, so who knows.

Artorias felt like waiting but chose reading how he could save his soul first as he felt the corruption begin a push like never before. He studied the demon script closely and what he read did not inspire confidence. He read and reread the line, "To rid yourself of the corruption that brought you to this alternate world, you must take the other half of your soul and press it into your chest. The corruption and your soul will fight for control; whichever loses the battle will be forced from your body while the other remains."

Artorias frowned and looked at the sprite, he hoped the corruption on it was weak from being out of a body for so long, but even demon souls can last for years and still have the same amount of strength; he didn't know if that applied to the corruption that was humanity.

Perhaps he could use his talism- "Artorias!" he heard a female voice shout from a distance, the sound echoing throughout the large chamber. He looked back and saw Maka holding a torch in the distance, the entire group following close behind her from what he could tell. They all ran down the stairs and then towards him, Artorias noticing that while Tsubaki was present, Black Star was not, which made him question if something happened.

"Artorias!" Maka said again with a smile as she looked at him, he was on his knees but was still about eye-level with her. "Finally, you've been gone for five days, what have you been doing down here?"

_Five days huh?_ He thought to himself before looking at all of them, before Tsubaki looked down at his hand, "What's that?" she asked with a furrowed brow, pointing down at his soul.

"The reason I have been down here so long," he said lifting the blue and black sprite up.

Everyone looked at it, "What is it?" Soul asked ready to poke it when Artorias drew it away.

"It is doubtful you'd believe me if I told you as I hardly believe it myself," he said looking into the soul.

"Try us," Kid said with a smirk.

He looked into the boy's eyes, "My soul," he said dead serious.

There was silence, "Yeah…" Kid said quietly, "That _is_ pretty hard to believe," his face was full of shock, as was everyone else's.

Tsubaki frowned, "But how can that be your soul? Stein said it was 'vibrant'?" she asked quoting the professor.

"This is only part of my soul, the same amount of corruption inside of me is how much of me is left on this soul," Artorias explained. "Do not ask how I got it," that was more of a demand than anything this time.

"Alright," Soul said, "Then how do you get your whole soul back?"

"That is what I was just trying to accomplish," he said gesturing to the book on the ground beside the torch.

Everyone looked at the strange writing in the book, none of them even beginning to understand what it could possibly say. Maka straightened confidently, "What do you need to do?"

Artorias looked at her with a smirk, always jumping forth for anyone in need of help. "Well, I need to press this soul into my chest and hope that the corruption does not win the battle for my soul," he said and everyone's face went grave. "Do you see why I wished to do this alone?"

"What'll happen if the corruption wins?" Tsubaki asked with worry.

Artorias shrugged, "I will most likely be driven mad and will attempt to kill you all," he said remembered living human and nonhuman he encountered who had the corruption. Liz gulped loudly in the background as she clutched Patties shoulders.

Maka looked into the darkness of his hood, "Are you sure about this Artorias?" she asked.

The knight shrugged, "I can perhaps cast a miracle that can boost my tolerance to the corruption, but the battle for my soul will take place within me, it is a fight that cannot be fought with sword but rather with strength, inner strength."

Maka nodded, "What do you need us to do?"

"Allow me some space, if you would," he said and everyone backed away. He grabbed his talisman and whispered a small prayer, a glowing circle forming around him for a moment before it faded away.

"What was that?" Kid asked curiously.

"A ward that will hopefully help some," he looked at Maka, "You asked how you could be of assistance?" she nodded again. He mimicked the move and closed his eyes, "All of you listen, what I am about to say is very important," he swept his gaze over every one of them, "if I do not win the battle, you must promise me that you kill me on the spot." Everyone's faces paled and they looked among each other, "Take my sword," he said holding it out hilt first, "it will be important it's not near me in case I lose myself." Soul hesitantly stepped forward and grabbed the sword, the blade slammed into the dirt the moment Artorias let go of it, the boy had to use both his hands to lift it up and move it away as he didn't want to drag it.

"Will you do what I ask?" Artorias' tone became more strict, "Anything else is out of the question, I cannot be allowed to live if lose this battle, I will be forever in torment and will do nothing but kill. So I say again, you must promise me you will kill me if I lose," still no one seemed to want to make eye-contact. His inner general began to rise, "Am I understood?!" he shouted and there were mumbled 'okays' from everyone.

He sighed, "I know I am asking a lot, but you know what is at stake here," he said and everyone nodded.

"If you don't make it, it's been nice knowing you man, you were one cool dude," Soul said with a small smile, there were words of agreement, "it's not every day you meet a knight."

Artorias smiled a bit and nodded, "I can say myself it's been quite the experience," he sighed, "now, if you will?" They all nodded and took another step back as he raised the soul to his chest and began to press it against it. He gasped and sucked in air, the pain was tremendous, but he kept on pushing the soul into his being until his hands touched only his armor.

Artorias felt his very being struggle with the war raging inside of him, his body hunching over and shaking and his hands clenching and unclenching. He felt his head ache, his vision blur, whispers in his ears, he groaned in pain and felt something being pushed into his hands. He began to pull his hands away but did not look down, almost afraid of what he might see. Finally though, he felt the pain vanish, the whispers fading, and he slumped a bit and began taking in deep breaths.

He looked down and saw a black sprite bordered by white sitting gently in his palm, two white lights that could resemble eyes floated awkwardly in the black of the sprite and it reminded him of the creatures from the chasm of the Abyss.

"Artorias?" Tsubaki asked cautiously from behind and he raised his hand a bit to signal he was alright, he heard sighs of relief.

"So what does this 'corruption' look like?" Kid asked and Artorias turned and showed them the humanity sprite in his hand.

"It looks kinda cute," Pattie said reaching a finger out to poke it, Artorias drew his hand back a bit and the girl seemed disappointed.

"Hardly seems all the trouble it was worth," Soul said looking at it.

"Yeah, it hardly seems like a corruption, what did it come from?" Maka asked.

Artorias looked over all of them, wondering if they were ready for the information he was about to bestow upon them. He sighed, there was only one way to find out, "All of you are well I am not human correct?" they all nodded, "Then allow me to tell you that humanity is lethal to one such as I."

Now they looked at him quizzically, "What do you mean?" Tsubaki asked.

"This," he said holding the sprite up a bit, "is a sprite of humanity, the inner soul of every human being."

"Wait, what?" Liz asked leaning forward, "did I hear you right? You said that is a 'humanity'?"

Artorias nodded, "Humans are so corrupt, not even a demon's soul is as black as theirs," he said reaching down to open his box and withdrawing the soul of the Capra Demon he had slain.

"But, that's crazy, human souls don't look like that!" Kid said.

"Yeah, I thought they were round and blue?" Tsubaki said.

Maka seemed to be in a bit more thought and stress at the subject, grasping her chest with a gloved hand, "Not all humans can have that," she muttered.

Artorias shook his head, "I do not expect you understand, you have not seen what I have seen and I surely hope you never do. While I do not necessarily say all humans' hearts are as black as their soul, but there is no denying that it is present in all humans, some more than others." He knew it would be too difficult to explain, "Perhaps some time I can sit down with you all and explain everything, but now, I am tired and sorely wish to leave this place." He put the souls away and strapped his box to his belt and pointed at his sword, "Soul, would you please…" the boy nodded and brought his weapon over, "thank you," he said using the sword as a prop to help him stand.

The boy smiled a bit, "I always thought that thing was heavy, but jeeze man, if you can swing that thing as good as you do with only one hand I'd hate to so much as arm wrestle you."

Artorias chuckled as he stood shakily, Tsubaki jumping forward to catch him as he fell for a moment, he thanked her and adjusted himself, she smiled and backed away. "Now that that's squared away," Kid said looking around, "perhaps you can you know the way out better than we do, Maka just went down random pathways for about twenty minutes until we were lucky enough to find you."

"Hey! I got us here didn't I?" Maka snapped, her cheeks flushed a bit in embarrassment.

Artorias patted the girls shoulder, "Tis alright, at least you got here," he said reaching down and picking up the torch off the ground and holding it up. "To answer your question, Kid, yes I do, come," he said and led them up the stairs and through the dark passageways until they walked into the entrance room.

Liz let out a sigh of relief and ran down the steps onto the dusty pathway that was bordered by the trees and began muttering 'thank you's to no one in particular as well as something about ghosts.

Artorias decided not to question it; he turned and looked over the group, deciding to finally ask about Black Star. "So where is the rowdy one?" he asked snuffing out the torch and placing it in a holster on a nearby wall.

"Oh Black Star?" Maka asked, "Yeah he tried to use one of Tsubaki's new abilities and got a trip to the nurse's office. Apparently using it drains some of the soul."

Artorias raised a brow and looked at Tsubaki, "There was something I missed while I was away?"

The girl blushed a bit and looked away, "Black Star and Tsubaki got their first soul, it was her brother's," Soul said.

Artorias nodded in understanding, "It is alright child, I understand, there were many I once was close to who I had to kill," he said and she looked at him with sad eyes, "It is not a comfortable feeling once the deed is done."

"No, it's not," she said holding her head up a bit.

"But you grow stronger and move forward, as I am sure you have already done," he speculated and she smiled a bit and nodded.

"Yeah, I guess I have."

Kid cleared his throat, "Yes, while that is all fine and dandy, there's still the matter of getting back to Death City."

Artorias nodded to the boy and turned, "Indeed, let us be on our way then," he said and walked down the steps past Liz, who was still directing 'thank you's toward whatever higher-up she worshiped he could only guess.

"Come on Liz, we're going back now," Kid said as he past her, Soul, Maka, Tsubaki, and Pattie not far behind.

Pattie was laughing as she poked her sister in the back, saying she was freaking out again. Liz suddenly stood up straight, "I don't know what you're talking about, I was just waiting for you guys," she said crossing her arms.

"Well now we're waiting for you, so if you could please continue walking," Kid said gesturing to the group walking ahead of them. "Unless of course you want to stay here…" that was all he needed to get her going.

* * *

Alright, well, that took a while, anyone who read the note I had posted should know why this took a while. I was actually close to finishing this when that wonderful little disaster struck and replaced all my changes I had made with boxes. While that may not sound too bad, I had changed A LOT from my original idea for this chapter, so yeah. Tell me what you guys think in a review, maybe things that could be improved upon a little bit, if you guys liked it, so on, the little details count sometimes. Anyway, maybe you guys can drop some future ideas for me too, I have some idea as to what I'm going to do that I'm not telling anyone quite yet, but if you paid attention to Artorias' speculation about how the transporting works, you might be able to guess.

With that, I hope you all enjoyed, thank you for getting this far if you have, and may you all have a good day.


	7. Reminder

Just letting all you guys know I updated chapter 6 to replace the note, so yeah, there ya go. Also, I'll be holding a poll on my profile for something special for the next chapter if you guys all want to go check that out and give me your opinion on it. Thanks again and good day! :}


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